King Charles has announced Labour’s plans for tackling crime and shoplifting in his speech on 17 July, as well as its commitment to bring forward vape restrictions, enforce smoking age increase, an energy drink ban for 16-year-olds, and new rights for workers.
The live speech included mention of legislation that will strengthen community policing, and give police greater powers to deal with anti-social behaviour and strengthen support for victims, while the document pledged that a new specific offence will be created for assaulting a shopworker, and ‘stronger measures’ introduced to tackle ‘low-level shoplifting’.
In its manifesto, the Labour government had previously pledged to making the assault of a retailer a standalone offence, as well as to recruiting 13,000 more police officers and community support officers patrolling high streets.
Other policies to impact retailers in the speech include the reintroducing of the previous Conservative government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which includes plans set out and personally pushed by Rishi Sunak.
This legislation means anyone who turns 15 or younger in 2024 will never legally be sold tobacco products, while on vaping, it will give ministers the power to restrict the flavours, packaging and product presentation of vaping products.
Retailers have said they could lose ‘thousands of pounds in profits’ due to this move.
Finally, a proposed Employment Rights Bill to “enhance employment rights” will see the ban of zero-hour contracts, which could see retailers with less flexibility when assigning staff hours. The Bill also includes removing the “discriminatory age bands to ensure every adult worker benefits”, so all staff are entitled to the same minimum wage. However, it is unclear if this applies to those aged 16 and 17 years old yet.
Industry reacts
Peter Batt, Nisa managing director, said: “It’s encouraging to see the introduction of a standalone offence for assaulting retail workers, especially after much campaigning from industry. However, it is crucial that independent retailers are included in these protections and are able to share in the additional police resourcing. The 2024 ACS Crime Report revealed 87% of colleagues in convenience stores, many of which are independently owned, faced verbal abuse, including around 76,000 violent incidents against retail staff.”
Ben Selvaratnam, of Freshfields Market in Croydon, South London, said “As an independent store owner, I’ve witnessed firsthand the significant rise in retail crime, which has become an almost daily challenge for us. This legislation is a much-needed step in the right direction. The rise in assaults and abuse towards retail workers is alarming and unacceptable. Implementing standalone laws to make assaulting retail workers a crime will hopefully serve as a strong deterrent and provide the necessary legal framework to ensure offenders are appropriately penalised.”
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We strongly welcome the government’s commitment to take action on the assaults of retail workers, which local shops have been calling for over many years. We are also encouraged by the specific reference to tackling shoplifting, which is the blight of so many communities and funds the activity of gangs, addicts and dangerous criminals.
“There are a number of measures that retailers will have to change their stores and processes to accommodate, including those set out in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the Employment Rights Bill, as well as the plans to restrict the sale of energy drinks. It is essential that the government works closely with the retail sector in this parliament to ensure that these measures can be introduced effectively, without the unintended consequence of delaying or reversing growth and investment by businesses.”
John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, commented: “[The Tobacco & Vapes Bill], if implemented with thought and care, could be the springboard to getting the country’s smoke-free ambitions back on track, after inaction from the last government caused it to slip backwards by a decade or more.
“At its worst, it could lead to the ban of all flavoured vapes, the end of retail in-store displays and vape products hidden from view just like deadly cigarettes. This would be the worst possible outcome because restricting vape sales would encourage former smokers to return to cigarettes and open the floodgates for black market dealers to take over the supply chain and target vulnerable young people in the process.
“At best, it will give impetus to help the country’s 6.4m smokers finally quit cigarettes, prevent millions of unnecessary of deaths and save the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds in treatment costs.”
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