The Government has put out a call for evidence, to enable it ‘to understand the true scale of the issue of violence and abuse toward shop staff’.
According to the Home Office document, available evidence such as surveys by the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) highlights an increase in incidents of violence and abuse toward shop staff. “However, there is a lack of comprehensive data, including on the nature of the incidents, the types of worker affected, the context within which incidents occur, and the types of shop affected.” As the Home Office admits, some incidents may go unreported, and, while some police forces use business crime flags to record where a crime takes place in a business setting, use of such ‘flags’ and even the definition of ‘business crime’ is not necessarily consistent. As the ACS crime seminar heard in London in March, a man assaulting his wife in a pub could be recorded by police as a business crime; or as domestic violence.
More on violence against retail and other businesses in the May 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
As for what to do, the document acknowledges Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) and ‘shop-watch’ schemes, besides staff training and tools such as Body Worn Video (BWV) – again, the ACS crime seminar heard how Asda among others on the high street and elsewhere are using body-worn to deter violence, and record incidents to better prosecute offenders. The call for evidence asks if ‘any non-legislative preventative measures’ or ‘training/guidance/support’ is in use that could handle potential or actual incidents.
On criminal justice, the document admits that victims may not report incidents, either to their employer or to the police. The Home Office does not detail why, but the ACS crime seminar heard that victims may feel that reporting makes no difference and that they have to accept abuse as part of the job. The document says: “The Government is keen to consider any barriers to reporting and options for helping to overcome these.”
The call is also for best practice, such as partnership working; some examples already available through the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC). The Home Office asks for responses by June 28.
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Home Office minister Victoria Atkins, who spoke to the ACS seminar by recorded video link (even though the Home Office is a bare 300 yards from the seminar venue in Westminster) said in a foreword to the document: “I would encourage anyone who has been affected by these issues, whether as a victim, retailer, frontline professional or otherwise, to share their experience to help shape the next steps for our response to this issue.”
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We welcome this call for evidence and we encourage retailers and shop workers to share their experiences. Along with the campaign we are running with the Home Office to encourage these crimes to be reported, this call for evidence shows that ministers want to face this problem head on. Retailers should take this opportunity to tell their story and press for a better response to these crimes from the police and courts.”
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) in its latest annual crime survey also found violence against staff a ‘key issue‘.
Visit https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-and-abuse-toward-shop-staff-call-for-evidence.
