Leading high street retailers, the Home Office and industry groups have come together to support #ShopKind Week, taking place on 6 – 10 May.
The #ShopKind campaign aims to remind customers about the importance of being considerate to shop workers and each other. UK-wide polling highlights that 31 per cent of customers are more anxious when they shop and 36 per cent of customers have witnessed violence and abuse towards shop worker while shopping.
The British Retail Consortium’s annual Crime Survey shows that there are over 1300 incidents of violence and abuse every day in the retail sector. Figures from the Association of Convenience Stores’ (ACS) annual Crime Report also show that almost 9 in 10 colleagues working in local shops have experienced verbal abuse over the last year.
The most frequently cited triggers in the ACS report were:
Encountering shop thieves
Asking customers to verify their age
Refusing to serve intoxicated customers
The #ShopKind campaign is backed by the Home Office and supported by over 100 leading high street retailers, the nation’s shopkeepers and trade union Usdaw.
Last month, the government announced that it would be introducing a separate offence for assaulting a retail worker, building on previous sentencing guidelines that made assaulting someone working in a store an aggravated offence.
This week (6-10 May) retailers are reminding customers to ShopKind in stores and acknowledge the important role of shopworkers to communities.
“Colleagues in shops are there to help and deserve to be treated with respect, and there is never a good excuse to be abusive towards them,” James Lowman, ACS chief executive, said.
“We’re pleased that there is such widespread continued support in the retail sector and from the Home Office for the Shopkind campaign, which we hope will urge frustrated shoppers to think twice before an incident escalates into abuse.”
Paddy Lillis, Usdaw general secretary, said: “Retail staff are key workers delivering essential services in every community and we stand together to say that abuse should not be a part of their job. We need better co-ordination to ensure that retail employers, police and the courts work together to make stores safer and give staff the support and confidence they need to report incidents. We welcome Shopkind as a week of action and a great step towards that aim.”
Paul Gerrard, campaigns, public affairs and board secretariat director at Co-op, said: “Retail workers work hard to serve and support communities, and while the vast majority of shoppers appreciate the vital role they play, the ShopKind campaign sends a message to those who think it is OK to abuse and attack shopworkers, or carry out acts of anti-social behaviour, that it really is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. With new and returning Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) receiving fresh mandates through last week’s elections, PCCs are urged to ensure that retail crime - which blights communities and harms shopworkers physically and mentally - is prioritised and successfully tackled in their communities.”
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “The appalling level of incidents of violence and abuse against our retail colleagues means the #ShopKind campaign absolutely vital. Those facing these confrontations are ordinary, hardworking retail colleagues - teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare. No one should ever go to work fearing for their safety. We remind customers to shop kind and be respectful to retail workers and fellow customers.”
National Business Crime Centre Lead Superintendent Patrick Holdaway said: “Shop workers play a key role in our local our communities yet every day we know many of them face verbal and physical abuse. The NBCC is working hard with police and partners to make retail spaces safer for employees and customers. The ShopKind campaign is an important reminder to be kind to the people working in retail who are there to help us and to show shopworkers that they have the support of their employers, the police and the public.”
More than £60,000 of illegal tobacco and vapes seized in Leeds
More than £60,000 worth of illegal cigarettes, hand-rolling tobacco and vapes have been seized in the Harehills area of Leeds, police said.
Last month, retail premises in the area were visited over a two-day period by police and Trading Standards, confiscating £62,796.80 worth of items, including 2,582 packets of illicit cigarettes, 85 bags of hand-rolling tobacco and 1,185 illegal vapes.
As part of the operation over £25,000 worth of cannabis was seized with one suspect arrested and currently under investigation.
The enforcement activity was part of the CommUnity Harehills project, which is based on the Clear, Hold, Build (CHB) initiative to tackle serious and organised crime.
“This two-day operation is just part of the continued work we are doing with partners to make long-lasting positive change for those living and working in Harehills,” Acting Sergeant Kody Bradley, lead for CommUnity Harehills, said.
“I hope the community are reassured by the efforts that are being made to disrupt organised criminality and pursue those who profit from causing harm to others.”
Linda Davis, head of West Yorkshire Trading Standards (protecting communities), said: “Partnership working is key in keeping our local communities safe. The supply of illicit tobacco is far from being a victimless crime, those involved are often organised criminal groups with links to drugs, modern slavery and other illegal activities, and its ready availability makes it easier for children to start smoking.
“I would encourage anyone with information about the supply of cheap and illicit tobacco to continue to report, to reduce the harm caused by tobacco in our communities.”
In addition to the work with Trading Standards, officers from the neighbourhood policing team were also joined by other agencies including licensing, police dog unit and the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
A prolific Gloucester shoplifter has been banned from wearing wigs after numerous attempts to disguise herself while committing thefts, Gloucestershire police said.
Hannah Roberts, aged 33 and of Nettleton Road, was handed a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) by Gloucester magistrates sitting at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court last month.
The court heard that Roberts, who had been banned by the City Safe scheme from entering any member shops, had repeatedly ignored the sanction.
When challenged by staff or security officers, Roberts had reportedly become abusive and run off with stolen items, the police said.
In an effort to get around the ban, she had also taken to wearing a variety of wigs to disguise herself. However, a distinctive tattoo on her neck meant that staff were able to easily recognise her.
Under the CBO, Roberts has been banned from entering Gloucester city centre as well as any shops participating in the Gloucester City Safe scheme.
Hannah RobertsPhoto: Gloucestershire Constabulary
She is also prohibited from wearing a wig or hairpiece designed to change her appearance when entering any retail premises.
Police Constable Andy Plant, from Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Vulnerabilities Team, said: "Our retail industry is suffering because of these persistent shoplifters.
"Roberts has been the top shoplifting offender in the last few months and we now have another tool to deal with her in the shape of this Criminal Behaviour Order.
"We will continue to support our businesses in the city and its surrounds by targeting shoplifters and obtaining further orders at court where possible."
Retailer Marks & Spencer forecast "further progress" in the balance of the year after reporting a better-than-expected 17.2 per cent rise in first-half profit, helped by market share gains, adding to evidence its latest turnaround plan is working.
After over a decade of failed revival efforts, M&S under chief executive Stuart Machin is reaping the rewards of a costly programme to improve the value and quality of its food and clothing, overhaul its store estate, upgrade its technology and e-commerce operations and modernise its supply chain.
The group made profit before tax and adjusting items of £407.8 millionin the six months to 28 September - ahead of analysts' consensus forecast of £361m and the £348.m made in the same period last year.
Revenue rose 5.7 per cent to £6.48 billion, with food sales up 8.1 per cent and clothing and homeware sales up 4.7 per cent.
"In the first five weeks of the second half overall trading remains on track and we are confident of making further progress in the remainder of the year," M&S said.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed need for a March 2025 deadline for compensating Post Office Horizon scandal victim, saying "an arbitrary cut-off date could result in some claimants missing the deadline".
In a response to Sir Alan Bates' call for a March 2025 deadline, Sir Keir Starmer's spokesperson today (5) stated that there would not be a deadline imposed.
"What we don't want to do is set an arbitrary cut-off date which could result in some claimants missing the deadline," the spokesperson said. "We obviously don't want to put pressure on claimants and put them off contesting their claim."
However, victims involved in a landmark case against the Post Office that ended in 2019 "should receive substantial redress by the end of March and we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal", the spokesperson added.
Earlier today (5), Sir Alan was giving evidence to the Business Select Committee when he told MPs that he has twice written to the Prime Minister in the past month to say "it needs to be finished by the end of March 2025".
"I never received a response," Sir Alan said, adding, "Deadlines do need to be set. People have been waiting far too long."
Sir Alan first wrote to the PM on Oct 2 and again a few days ago, urging him to make sure victims get full financial redress by March next year.
“People have been waiting far too long, over 20-odd years, there’s over 70 that have died along the way in the GLO group. There are people well into their 80s now that are still suffering. They’re still having to put up with this as well. They shouldn’t. They really shouldn’t," he said.
Bates himself has twice declined compensation this year, saying the first offer in January was "cruel" and "derisory", and about a sixth of what he had claimed.
When asked today by Liam Byrne, the committee chair, whether he would consider crowdfunding to return to court, Sir Alan said, “I would never say never.”
Legal action was one of several options his campaign group was planning to discuss at a meeting in the coming weeks, he said.
“I know that if we decide to go down that route we are going to halt the current scheme, and it’s going to be at least six, 12 or 24 months before it moves forward in that direction," Sir Alan said, adding: "That might be a choice people are prepared to take."
More than 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their shops.
Appearing alongside Sir Alan were former subpostmaster Dewi Lewis, who was jailed for four months after being wrongfully convicted of theft from his branch, and Jill Donnison, a claimant who worked in her late mother’s branch.
Donnison criticised some of the questions she had been expected to answer as part of her efforts to seek compensation as “long-winded and impossible to answer”.
She said claimants were expected to know how much they had lost even though key data was missing from the records, with documents provided by the Post Office “practically illegible”.
Convenience store body has expressed concern over licensing scheme for retailers to sell tobacco, vape and nicotine products in England, Wales and Northern Ireland under Tobacco and Vapes Bill introduced in the Parliament today (5), saying that the licensing scheme has been outlined without any consultation with the retailers who will be most affected by it.
The Bill confirms the Government’s intention to create a "smoke free generation" by phasing out the sale of tobacco products to anyone currently aged 15 or younger. The generational ban will come into force in 2027, meaning that there will be a single date that retailers have to reference for age restricted sales on tobacco – rather than checking if a customer is over the age of 18.
The Bill will also include powers to introduce a licensing scheme for retailers to sell tobacco, vape and nicotine products in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and will introduce on the spot fines of £200 to retailers found to be selling these products to people underage. The licensing scheme, which has been outlined without any consultation with the retailers that will be most affected by it, includes the potential to limit the number of businesses in an area based on their proximity to other retailers in the area as well as other conditions determined by local authorities.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said, “A licensing scheme has the potential to help tackle the illicit market and punish those who sell to children, but unless properly structured it could also prevent legitimate traders from operating based on the presence of other outlets in the area, or the specifics of where that store is located. This requires detailed consultation with local shops and other stakeholders, and none of this has taken place. We now need proper discussion of the detail as regulations are drafted, or we fear that this legislation will significantly impact investment, growth and service provision in our sector.”
Other measures in the Bill include a ban on vape advertising and sponsorship, as well as powers to restrict the flavours, display and packaging of all types of vapes, as well as other nicotine products.
The Bill follows confirmation last month that the Government is planning to go ahead with a ban on disposable vaping products, which will come into force on June 1st 2025.
Lowman continued: “The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will require retailers to make significant changes in their businesses, both on age restricted sales processes and the way that their stores are stocked and managed. It is essential that the Government provides retailers with clear guidance on the rules, and communicates the changes not just with retailers, but with the public as well.
“The introduction of £200 fines to act as a deterrent for retailers selling products to underage customers is welcome, but we are concerned that there is not enough enforcement right now to deal with the rogue operators in the tobacco and vaping market. Trading Standards need significantly more funding to be able to make a difference through targeted local enforcement, not just against those selling to young people, but also those who sell illicit products.”