Scotland supermarket and shop law could be rolled out in England too

Retailers want the rest of the UK to follow Scotland’s example over law protecting shop staff. Holyrood imposed a law creating a statutory offence of assaulting, threatening or abuse of retail staff in supermarkets and shops.

The British Retail Consortium says retailers are spending hundreds of millions on security staff and other measures such as CCTV and security tags. The Protection of Workers Act, which was brought before Holyrood as a member’s bill by Daniel Johnson, of Scottish Labour, created a new statutory offence of assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker and was backed unanimously by MSPs.

“During the pandemic we became acutely aware of our dependence on retail workers,” explains Johnson. “That was a real driver for this law, along with the tendency for government to ask them to uphold public policy at the till point, whether that’s plastic bag changes or age restrictions on products.”

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He added: “No one should face violence at work, yet we’ve seen a further escalation of that around shop theft with the cost of living crisis creating a perfect storm. Retail workers tell me their day-to-day reality means routinely wearing body-worn cameras and fearing violence and aggression, whether its people hurling abuse if asked for proof of age or throwing punches when challenged about shop lifting.”

The Scottish figures show that a standalone offence “is clearly working”, according to the British Retail Consortium. And many want the law rolled out in England too, in a bid to protect store workers and retail staff nationwide.

The shopworkers’ union Usdaw is also calling for a standalone offence, arguing that the epidemic of shoplifting has become a “a major flashpoint for violence and abuse against shopworkers”. Paddy Lillis, the union’s general secretary, said: “It is shocking that two-thirds of our members working in retail are suffering abuse from customers, with far too many experiencing threats and violence.

“Six in ten of these incidents were triggered by theft from shops. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime … Having to deal with repeated and persistent shoplifters can cause issues beyond the theft itself like anxiety, fear and in some cases physical harm to retail workers. We are saying loud and clear that enough is enough, this should never be part of the job.”