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<p>The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any worker,
particularly those who provide a valuable service to the public, is never acceptable.</p><p>In
2022, we took the significant step to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for
assault against those who are serving the public. Section 156 of the Police, Crime,
Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 means the public facing nature of a victim’s role will
be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences,
allowing the court to give a longer sentence within the statutory maximum for the
offence.</p><p>Assaults against retail workers are not separately identifiable in
police recorded crime data held centrally by the Home Office.</p><p>The Government
shares concerns about the level of assaults against retailers. In October 2023, the
National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.npcc.police.uk%2Fresources%2Fe6e5n-gfsgg-qru39-qjnkc-dbait&data=05%7C02%7CRebecca.Khosla2%40homeoffice.gov.uk%7C2866bb4a3f554fdf3e4208dc014e95e9%7Cf24d93ecb2914192a08af182245945c2%7C0%7C0%7C638386684221640764%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=k3DpuJZSdEOv4zGEcy3P7WC8Cajku%2F9%2BKH6vpSTM2Y4%3D&reserved=0"
target="_blank">Retail Crime Action Plan</a>. Through this Plan, all forces across
England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where
violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by
store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police
personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will
run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific
offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.</p><p>The longer-term impact of the
Action Plan will continue to be monitored; however, retailers have reported early
signs of improvement in the police response to retail crime and according to data
collected by the NPCC from a dip sample of forces in December 2023, police attended
60% of crimes reported by retailers where violence had been used, with 16% of forces
sampled reporting 100% attendance to this type of incident: <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.npcc.police.uk%2Freleases%2Fpolicing-retail-crime-action-plan-shows-early-impact&data=05%7C02%7CRebecca.Khosla2%40homeoffice.gov.uk%7C1a01eb9ee2e64dcd875808dc475d541c%7Cf24d93ecb2914192a08af182245945c2%7C0%7C0%7C638463713385006983%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Jqn9Nt%2B9dPKfOPSLwcpOfvRdMr0%2FnzhQiPrtKRTuuQA%3D&reserved=0"
target="_blank">Policing Retail Crime Action Plan shows early impact (npcc.police.uk)</a>.</p>
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