The government is expected to make assaulting retail workers a criminal offence following pressure from the sector.
The new law, which makes assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker a standalone offence under the Crime and Policing bill, is expected to be announced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday, The Times reported.
It comes as Tesco boss Ken Murphy called on the government this week to make changes to the current bill as attacks on store staff continue to climb.
The chief executive told The Times that the number of serious incidents involving a weapon rocketed 39% during the supermarket’s first quarter.
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He said the numbers were “truly shocking”.
“A single assault on a shop worker is unacceptable, but this steep rise must see this issue put right at the heart of the incoming government’s legislative agenda,” he said.
Murphy revealed that Tesco has spent tens of millions of pounds on “necessary measures”, such as security officers, body-worn cameras, protective screens and door entry systems.
“Sadly they are still not enough,” he explained. “That’s why I am calling on the new Labour government to introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker in this week’s King’s Speech.”
Murphy added the government would send the “strongest of signals to the perpetrators of these crimes and give our teams in England and Wales they protections already afforded to their colleagues in Scotland”.
Daily incidents against shop workers skyrocketed 50% to 1,300 last year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported earlier this year, with theft costing retailers around £1.8bn in 2023.
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