Answer from Hansard

The Minister for Policing and Crime Prevention (Dame Diana Johnson)

This month, we have supported police and the retail industry to launch the new retail crime strategy, and the Home Secretary launched a safer streets blitz in town centres, with targeted action to tackle retail crime. Under the previous Government, shop theft soared to record levels and assaults against retail workers spiralled out of control. That is why, in addition to investing in neighbourhood policing, we are introducing in our Crime and Policing Bill a new stand-alone offence of assaulting a shop worker, because everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.