Shoplifting offences up by a quarter in past year, figures show

There were 365,164 offences recorded in the year to June 2023, up by a quarter on the previous 12 months.

The data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday (October 19) comes after retailers warned they were facing an “epidemic of shoplifting and violence against shop workers”.

The Association of Convenience Stores says retailers across the UK, both large and small, are currently dealing with a “torrent of theft”, which is having an enormous financial and human impact every single day.

These crimes are often accompanied by abusive and violent behaviour by offenders, leaving shopworkers and retailers powerless to do anything to protect their livelihoods.

And a survey by the British Independent Retailers Association showed stores have been hit by “epidemic levels” of retail crime, with the British Retail Consortium estimating that the cost of theft against the retail sector has reached almost a billion pounds over the year.

Overall, police recorded theft has increased by ten per cent (to 1.7 million offences) compared with the year ending June 2022. The ONS says this rise was predominantly the result of increases in theft offences against businesses.

Within theft offences, burglary offences remained 29 per cent lower (272,402 offences) and vehicle offences remained 14 per cent lower (400,861 offences) compared with the year ending March 2020.

The ONS statistics use data from police recorded crime and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

Police recorded crime in England and Wales in the year ending June 2023 was four per cent higher than the previous year with 6.7 million crimes recorded compared with 6.5 million in the year ending June 2022. These increases were predominantly influenced by rises in shoplifting and fraud offences against businesses and other organisations.

The ONS says the figures reflect improvements to recording processes and practices by the police.

“Expansions of the recorded crime collection to include new offences, variations in police activity, more victims reporting crime, and genuine increases in some types of crime, have each made substantial contributions to rises in recorded crime over recent years,” it said.

In contrast, the latest figures from the CSEW for the year ending June 2023 showed that total crime decreased by ten per cent (to an estimated 8.4 million offences) compared with the year ending June 2022, mainly caused by decreases in fraud and criminal damage offences.

This follows the long-term downward trend and recent falls since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, with total crime 18 per cent lower than the year ending March 2020.

Compared with the previous year, estimates for individual crime types showed that criminal damage and fraud had both fallen (by 28 per cent and 13 per cent respectively) while computer misuse offence had risen by 33 per cent.

Police recorded crime data for the year ending June 2023 showed:

• The number of homicides decreased by ten per cent to 602 offences compared with the year ending June 2022 (667 offences);
• Robbery offences increased by 11 per cent to 77,337 offences compared with the previous 12 months (69,432 offences), however, they remained 14 per cent lower than the year ending March 2020 (90,194 offences);
• Offences involving knives or sharp instruments (excluding Devon and Cornwall Police) increased by three per cent (to 50,833 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (49,435 offences), but remain seven per cent lower compared with the year ending March 2020 (54,417 offences); and
• Offences involving firearms (excluding Devon and Cornwall Police) increased by 13 per cent (to 6,645 offences) compared with the previous year (5,860 offences), and are now at a similar level to the year ending March 2020 (6,511 offences).

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), West Midlands Police and Greater Manchester Police were the three forces with the highest volume of knife-enabled crime.

While the West Midlands and Greater Manchester forces saw decreases of five per cent (to 4,724 offences) and 16 per cent (to 3,012 offences), respectively, the MPS saw a 21 per cent increase to 13,503 offences. However, levels were still eight per cent lower compared with the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (14,681 offences).

Across England and Wales, police recorded ‘possession of article with a blade or point’ offences were ten per cent higher in the year ending June 2023 (28,211 offences) than in the previous 12 months (25,582 offences). However, the ONS said this trend could have been influenced by targeted police action to tackle knife crime.

Commenting on the latest figures from the CSEW, Jon Czul, head of consultancy and research at Skills for Justice, said: “”We cannot underestimate the impact that recent efforts to expand and upskill the justice sector workforce have had in improving certain outcomes.

“Nevertheless, we know that there is much more to be done, and continued investment in the workforce, not only in policing, but also in prisons and probation, is required to reduce the impacts of crime and deter reoffending.”