Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson shared the government’s plan to reverse the current £200 threshold in its shoplifting charter, to better tackle the rise in retail crime

After its initial announcement in the King’s Speech earlier this year, the Government has now set out clear plans to overhaul current laws that lead to the deprioritising of theft under £200.

At the retail crime summit in London this week, Dame Johnson said: ‘It is simply not right to leave business and retail workers at the mercy of criminals. We will therefore remove the £200 threshold and treat shoplifting with the seriousness that it deserves, ending the shameful neglect of shoplifting over the last 10 years.’

The current threshold, which was brought in under the 2014 shoplifting legislation, makes shop theft involving property with a value of £200 or less a summary-only offence. 

The British Beauty Council is pleased to see that the Government is taking much needed action to protect shop staff and businesses. Victoria Brownlie MBE, Chief Policy and Sustainability Officer says: ‘Beauty retail is a sector that has really felt the brunt of the previous administration’s decision to deem the theft of goods under £200 as “low category shoplifting”. 

‘With costs already challenging for retailers in other areas of business such as rates, utilities, staffing and increased costs of goods and services, it is much welcomed that the new Government recognises the need to tackle this with the urgency it deserves.’ 

The move comes after repeated calls from the organisation and other stakeholders to amend the legislation. In fact, last year a number of organisations signed a joint letter highlighting the huge losses caused by the lack of action again ‘low-value’ theft. It stated that costs reached a staggering cost of £953m, despite more than £700m being spent on crime prevention at the time. 

On the announcement this week, British Retail Consortium’s Chief Executive, Helen Dickinson, added: ‘We welcome the Labour’s firm stance on shoplifting, with the announcement on extra funding aimed at tackling a scourge that costs the industry over £1.8bn.

‘This is on top of the scrapping of the low-level shoplifting threshold, which has resulted in many police forces ignoring smaller crimes. Working closely with the police and Government, retailers are determined to tackle retail crime – from shoplifting, to violence against retail workers.’