A new report by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has shown that the number of incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers in the UK has risen to 1,300 a day. The organisation’s analysis, which covered the years 2022 to 2023, stated that this represented a 50 per cent rise in the levels of retail violence.
In addition, over the same time frame, the recorded cost of stealing doubled to £ 1.8 billion, or 45,000 instances per day. This means that the total cost of crime increased to £ 3.3 billion. This is the case even though merchants have reportedly invested £ 1.2 billion in heightened measures, such as body-worn cameras, CCTV, and security guards, in an effort to reduce crime.
As a result, there was a rise in the region’s discontent with the police, with 60 per cent of research participants in the BRC claiming that the force responded to situations in a ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ manner.
In a release, Helen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC, said, “Despite retailers investing huge sums in crime prevention, violence and abuse against retail workers is climbing. With over 1,300 incidents every day, the Government can no longer ignore the plight of ordinary, hardworking retail colleagues.”
