Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts said:

“This is a welcome announcement by the Prime Minister given the huge increase in the physical and verbal abuse of shop workers in England and Wales”.

“Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK not to have such laws to deter criminals and to protect shop staff”.

‘In two weeks’, time Retail NI will be launching a comprehensive report on the experiences of our members relating to business crime.  It will also outline what the Department of Justice and PSNI need to do to tackle it”.

“Top of our list is for this law to include Northern Ireland”.

“Our shop staff deserve no less”.

Assaulting a retail worker to be made a standalone criminal offence.

Serial or abusive shoplifters will face tougher punishments as the UK Prime Minister sets out tough new action to crack down on retail crime and protect UK highstreets.

Assaulting a retail worker will be made a standalone criminal offence, sending a clear message that there will be tough consequences for this unacceptable behaviour.

Perpetrators could be sent to prison for up to six months, receive an unlimited fine and be banned from going back to the shop where they committed their crimes, with Criminal Behaviour Orders barring them visiting specific premises. Breaching an order is also a criminal offence and carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. For the most serious cases of assault, such as causing grievous bodily harm with intent, offenders could face a life sentence.

The move to create the new offence follows longstanding campaigning on this issue from Matt Vickers MP, and some of the biggest retailers, calling for more action to better protect their staff.

The government is also stepping up action to clamp down on offenders who repeatedly target the country’s high streets, with serial offenders forced to wear tags to track their movements.

These tags will be a constant and physical reminder to offenders that the Probation Service can find out where they have been and when, and that they risk being sent to prison if they refuse to obey the rules. Under an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, if an offender is found guilty of assaulting staff three times, or is sentenced for shoplifting on three separate occasions, they should be made to wear a tag as part of any community order.

Ahead of this legislation coming in, the government will partner with a police force to pilot a bespoke package of community sentencing measures which can be used by judges to tackle high levels of shoplifting, sending a clear message that repeat criminality will not be tolerated.

The Westminster government is also ramping up the use of facial recognition technology to help catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting in the first place. Backed by a £55.5m investment over the next four years, the police will be able to further roll this new state of the art technology. This will include £4m for bespoke mobile units that can be deployed to high streets across the country with live facial recognition used in crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police – including repeat shoplifters.

The mobile units will take live footage of crowds in towns and on highstreets, comparing images to specific people wanted by the police or banned from that location. Police in the area will then be alerted so they can track down these offenders.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:

Since 2010, violent and neighbourhood crime in England and Wales has fallen dramatically, showing our plan to keep our streets safe is working. Yet shoplifting and violence and abuse towards retail workers continues to rise.

I am sending a message to those criminals – whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves – who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough.

Our local shops are the lifeblood of our communities, and they must be free to trade without the threat of crime or abuse.

The action set out on 10th April builds on the successes already through the police’s Retail Crime Action Plan, which was commissioned by the Crime and Policing Minister, Chris Philp last year.

This included a range of measures, such as a police commitment to prioritise urgently attending the scene of shop theft involving violence against a shop worker, where security guards have detained an offender or where attendance is needed to secure evidence, which is showing signs of progress.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly said:

There is quite simply no excuse for threatening behaviour or stealing – which can run other people’s livelihoods into the ground, while being traumatic for workers.

To turn a blind eye to retail crime shakes the foundations of law and order which protect our society and that is unacceptable. We are enhancing our plan and doubling down on the zero-tolerance approach needed to fight back.

The number of offenders being charged for these crimes is increasing and while I want to see more people face consequences for their actions, our plan is designed to help put a stop to these crimes happening in the first place.

The UK government has driven forward significant efforts to tackle retail crime in the past year, bringing together policing and business to commit to smarter, more joined up working to reduce criminal behaviour and rebuild public confidence in the police response when it does occur.

Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp said:

Sadly if you speak to anyone working in retail, they will tell you of the verbal abuse and sometimes violent assaults they’ve been victims of, simply for trying to do their job.

In no other work place would this be accepted. I have been driving forward action to improve the police response to retail crime since I became Policing Minister, because nothing less than a zero-tolerance approach will do.

That’s why today we’re sending a clear message to criminals that enough is enough bringing forward further measures to protect retail workers and crack down on those who continuously disregard the law.

A specialist new police team set up last year is building intelligence on organised retail crime gangs funded through ‘Pegasus’, a first-of-its-kind business and policing partnership backed by 14 of the UK’s biggest retailers, National Business Crime Solutions and the Home Office, launched to radically improve the way retailers are able to share intelligence with police to identify more offenders. The unit forms part of Opal, the national police intelligence unit for serious organised acquisitive crime.

Where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police are committed to running this through the Police National Database, as standard, to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals. This builds on the pledge by police forces across England and Wales that they will follow up on all lines of enquiry, where there is a reasonable chance it could lead them to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime.

All police forces across England and Wales made another significant commitment last year to prioritise police attendance at the scene of a retail crime incident where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, or where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel.

Paul Gerrard, Campaigns and Public Affairs Director of The Co-op Group, said:

The Co-op sees every day the violence and threats our colleagues, like other retail workers, face as they serve the communities they live in.

We have long called for a standalone offence of attacking or abusing a shopworker and so we very much welcome the Government’s announcement today.

The Co-op will redouble our work with police forces but these measures will undoubtedly, when implemented, keep our shopworkers safer, protect the shops they work in and help the communities both serve.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:

After relentless campaigning for a specific offence for assaulting retail workers, the voices of the three million people working in retail are finally being heard.

The impact of retail violence has steadily worsened, with people facing racial abuse, sexual harassment, threatening behaviour, physical assault and threats with weapons, often linked to organised crime. Victims are ordinary hardworking people – teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare.

This announcement sends a clear message that abusive behaviour will not be tolerated and it is vital the police use this new legislation to step up their response to incidents. Together, we must stamp out this scourge in crime that has been sweeping the nation and ensure retail workers are given the vital protections they deserve.

Violence and abuse against UK retail staff has risen significantly, with 1,300 incidents a day. Shop workers face acts of violence, racial abuse, sexual harassment, and physical assaults. Thefts have more than doubled to 16.7 million incidents last year. This surge in retail crime coincides with rampant price inflation, putting pressure on families.

Additionally, the UK government is investing over £55 million in expanding facial recognition systems to combat shoplifting.

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Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts said:

“It is an absolutely disgrace that Mid and East Antrim Council voted through a massive rate increase of nearly 12%. Why should our members and other small businesses in Mid and East Antrim have to bail out an inept council for its inability to balance its own budget?”

“Independent retailers and small businesses are already paying the highest business rates in the UK and this Council has made an already bad situation worse by this shameful decision”.

“Mid and East Antrim’s senior leadership team and the Councillors who voted for this increase have serious questions to answer”

“In England small businesses are getting a 75% reduction in their rates to assist with the Cost of Doing Business Crisis. Despite the UK Government giving Northern Ireland this funding as part of the Barnett Consequential, our local small businesses are unlikely to see a single penny of reduction in their rates bills”

“Why should independent retailers and small businesses in Northern Ireland be so unfairly treated in comparison to their English counterparts? Our local business sector shouldn’t be targets for additional revenue raising at the Council or NI Executive level”.

“At the very least the Finance Minister should freeze the non-domestic Regional Business Rate and begin an immediate fundamental review of our broken and antiquated rating system”

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In a shock move, earlier this year, the Government announced its decision to remove all DVLA services from 31 March 2024. Removing yet further face-to-face transactions will have an extremely negative impact on vulnerable and digitally excluded customers whilst also jeopardising the livelihood of 50,000 full-time equivalent employees who work in the post offices around the UK. Losing this over-the-counter service is also another nail in the coffin for cash.

Across the UK, currently six million customers access DVLA services across Post Office counters. Half of those pay in cash.

In Northern Ireland, there are up to 500 PO branches with approximately  40,000+ DVLA transactions at post office counters per month. Total customer numbers per month are estimated to be around 350,000 – 400,000.

Jim McCafferty, Non-Executive Director for Northern Ireland said, “I think the DVLA withdrawal is unfair to our customers as many of them visit our branch purposefully to pay their Road Fund Licence (Car Tax) with CASH – it is their preferred method of payment. I believe the Government decision to provide this service online only is to the detriment of communities across the country and further weakens the financial position of beleaguered SubPostmasters.

Local Postmaster Jim Moan who owns Howard Street Post Office in  Belfast said, ” The Government promised us more work, not less and less, they are crippling the whole network of post offices. My customers are not happy with this decision. This is just another nail in the coffin, my business was already struggling, and the removal of another service is the last straw – we must make a stand”.

In response to the Government’s decision, the  NFSP have set  out a campaign to raise awareness of this campaign and a petition to collect signatures called “Prevent Government from removing DVLA services from the post office from April 2024’. Members of the public can sign the petition here but the NFSP are encouraging their customers to go into their local post office and physically sign an offline petition. This will support their local post office and protect this vital community service.

The NFSP hope to present a significant amount of signatures to Government and MPs on 1st November this year so the issue can be debated in Parliament and presented at Downing Street to persuade them to reverse their decision. If Government continues to remove services from Post Office counters, then the network will go the way of many of the banks and cease to exist on our High Streets and within our communities.”

Postmasters are self-employed businesspeople who have invested their own money into the Post Office network. Collectively they employ around 50,000 full-time equivalent employees, who rely on their businesses to help them pay bills and provide for their families.

Last year, the network earned over £3m from providing DVLA services so at a time when there is a cost-of-living crisis, the loss of the DVLA income will hit Postmasters hard along with their ability to continue to employ staff.

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Giving an Oral Statement to the Assembly on Northern Ireland’s first overarching Environment Strategy. Mr Poots said the measure would come in on April 1 next year.

He also announced an extension to the existing pricing threshold, which will see all bags priced at £5 or less subject to the levy, irrespective of the material they are made from.

Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts said: “We absolutely share Ministers Poots’ objective of less plastic being in circulation and continuing to litter our streets. Retail NI members have led the way in in reducing plastic packaging and promoting bag for life options”

“Northern Ireland already has one of the most extensive carrier bag levies in the UK, covering single use and plastic which has led to a reduction in Carrier Bag usage by 73.2% (1.5 billion bags). Retail NI argued for the current 5p charge to be increased to a more realistic figure of 10p in line with what is being proposed in England and Scotland”

“We believe this excessive 500% increase will disproportionately impact on low-income families at time of huge economic turmoil with Covid-19, high Energy Bills and increases in National Insurance”

“Retail NI have asked for an immediate meeting with the Minister to discuss these proposals.”

Mr Poots told the Assembly that the existing 5p Carrier Bag Levy had been successful in removing more than 1.7 billion bags from circulation, but he was aware that a significant number of retailers in NI are selling large volumes of heavy duty bags at a cost of 20p or more each.

“These are now flooding the market and are not being reused, with harmful environmental consequences. This announcement today will go some way towards making Northern Ireland a cleaner and more pleasant place in which to live, by ensuring that proceeds from the Levy are re-invested in supporting the wider NI environmental sector,” he said.

“By continuing to work together we can help meet the New Decade, New Approach commitment on eliminating plastic pollution, this also underpins the draft Green Growth Strategy for Northern Ireland, which I recently launched on behalf of the NI Executive.

“It is unacceptable that far too much plastic ends up as pollution in our environment or waste in our landfills. My Department will continue to work hard on the issue of the circular economy, eliminating plastic pollution and tackling throwaway culture. With over five trillion single use plastic bags used worldwide every year and plastic waste set to quadruple by 2050, I would encourage everyone to play their part locally and re-use bags whenever they can.”

Ian Humphreys, Chief Executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said: “Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful welcomes the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Edwin Poots’ announcement that Northern Ireland’s carrier bag levy will rise to 25p next April.

“This is a brave move in the fight against plastic pollution, one that KNIB has been pushing Stormont on for some time. This move will hopefully deter throw away culture and consumer dependency on single use plastics and instead encourage consumers to be more sustainably-minded and reuse shopping bags.

“The announcement comes in the midst of COP26 which has served as an excellent platform to us all to acknowledge that the environmental challenges that face us are very real and immediate. If we all commit to small changes now, such as reusing plastic bags or not purchasing them at all, it will have a hugely positive impact.”

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