Ten times as many candidates in the 2 May Police and Crime Commissioner Elections pledged action against retail crime compared to the previous elections, analysis by Better Retailing has revealed.

Manifestos and statements from the 136 candidates standing across 37 regions in England and Wales showed 35% either expressed concern around retail crime or pledged specific measures to tackle the problem.

However, the figures show that a third of regions did not have a single candidate that had prioritised retail crime in their plans and nearly two thirds of all candidates failed to address incidents in stores.

Despite the challenges the findings are still a significant improvement on when Better Retailing conducted the same analysis during the previous PCC elections in 2021, when just 3.1% of candidates mentioned retail crime. The spike in interest matches the spike in retail crime offences in England and Wales. Reported incidents have increased by a third in a single year to reach their highest levels on record.

Despite the Conservatives describing itself as the ‘party of business’, it is Labour that is most routinely prioritising tackling retail crime. More than half of its candidates pledged action against shoplifting or assaults in stores, compared with one in three Conservative candidates. While two thirds of Labour candidates addressed the impact of crime on businesses, less than half of Conservative candidates did the same.

The Liberal democrats had the worst track record of any of the main UK political parties. Despite standing in nearly all regions, less than one in twenty candidates mentioned retail crime. Not a single candidate from the Green Party, Reform, Plaid Cymru or the English Democrats mentioned retail crime.

With the power to set out multi-year policing plans which police forces must stick to, to allocate budgets and to launch initiatives, trade groups including the ACS and Fed have placed great  importance on pressuring PCCs to address retail crime, having hosted more than a dozen meetings in the last year alone. There were signs the strategy was paying off, with many of those met with outlining their next steps on retail crime in their manifestos for re-election.

In Durham for instance, Joy Allen has vowed to strengthen work to prevent retail crime incidents from occurring through greater collaboration with shop owners and staff. In Sussex, Katy Bourne has pledged to use ankle tags on prolific shoplifters. In Thames Valley, Matthew Barber celebrated the number of shoplifters being charged doubling under his watch.

Full list of candidates that prioritised retail crime in their election statements or manifestos:

Cleveland: Labour – Matt Storey

Derbyshire: Labour – Nicolle Sibusiso Ndiweni

Dorset: Labour – David Stokes

Durham: Labour – Joy Allen

Gloucestershire: Conservative – Chris Nelson, Labour – Ashley Smith, Lib dem – Martin John Surl

Gwent: Labour – Jane Helen Mudd

Hampshire: Conservative – Donna Jones, Labour – Becky Williams

Hertfordshire: Labour – Tom Plater

Kent: Labour – Lenny Rolles, Conservative – Matthew Richard Scott

Lancashire: Labour – Clive Grunshaw

Leicestershire: Conservative – Rupert Oliver Matthews, Labour – Rory Palmer, Lib dem – Ian Robert Sharpe

Norfolk: Lib dem – John Peter Crofts, Labour – Sarah Taylor

North Wales: Conservative – Brian Jones

Northamptonshire: Labour – Danielle Stone

Northumbria: Labour – Susan Elizabeth Dungworth, Conservative – Ros Munro, Independent – Mustaque Rahman

Nottinghamshire: Conservative – Caroline Elizabeth Henry

South Wales: Conservative – George Carroll

Staffordshire: Conservative – Ben Adams

Suffolk: Conservative – Tim Passmore, Labour – Robin Wales

Surrey: Labour – Kate Chinn

Sussex: Conservative – Katy Bourne, Labour – Paul Adrian Richards

Thames Valley: Conservative – Matthew Barber, Independent – Russell Douglas Fowler, More Police Officers for Thames Valley – Ben Holden-Crowther, Labour -Tim Starkey

West Mercia: Labour – Richard Andrew Overton

West Midlands: Conservative – Tom Byrne

Wiltshire: Labour – Stanka Adamcova