Lord Dholakia:

Moved by Lord Dholakia

132: After Clause 54, insert the following new Clause—“Low-value shoplifting(1) The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 is amended as follows.(2) Omit section 176 (low-value shoplifting).”Member’s explanatory statementThis new Clause repeals section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, relating to low value shoplifting

My Lords, the purpose of the amendment in my name is to remove Section 176 from the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. With regard to what is affectionately known as shoplifting, it is estimated by the British Retail Consortium that businesses lose £770 million a year to shop theft—and retail theft crimes are rising year on year. According to figures available from the Home Office, there was an overall increase in retail theft of 19.1% between 2014 and 2018, compared with an increase of 4.96% between 2010 and 2014. This is no surprise.

Section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 allows anyone accused of shoplifting anything under £200 to plead guilty by post, as if they had been given a parking ticket. Use of this legislation is often cited as a cost-saving exercise, but the truth is that it does not save money. In fact, it does the opposite, as everyone loses, whether it is customers who end up paying higher prices or the retailers who lose their jobs when the business fails. But it is still being used, with Thames Valley Police for example informing local shops that they will not send out officers to deal with shoplifters who steal less than £100-worth of goods. This piece of legislation has, therefore, massively reduced the deterrent to theft and the punishment that an offender can expect, with many savvy criminals exploiting the situation to steal with virtual impunity.

Just one in 20 of all shoplifting offences are now prosecuted, while the number of cautions for such thefts have fallen from 40,000 to just 5,000 in a decade, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, it is worth noting that it takes an average of 30 offences before an individual is convicted of a shop theft that results in a custodial situation. It is soul destroying for hard-working businesses to have their livelihood literally stolen away from them. The British Independent Retailers Association has come to see me on a number of occasions; its crime survey for 2021, just completed this month, shows that two-thirds of its members see most crimes against businesses valued at less than £200, while two-thirds of members also reported a disproportionate increase in the theft of goods worth less than £200 since this threshold was put in place in 2014. This shows that businesses are losing more and more each year to this type of crime, as it is currently being left unchecked.

John Barlow, a BIRA member in Nottingham, rightly pointed out that the police are basically telling kids, “Help yourselves”. Of course, there are more serious crimes that the police need to solve, but you cannot just give thieves a licence to steal. Shop theft is not a victimless crime; in fact, smaller independent retailers feel the impact of retail crime more acutely than larger retailers, which typically have better security systems, employ guards and security staff, sell larger orders and have better margins and economies of scale. Conversely, a small retailer operating on a typical margin of 8% would need to sell £2,500-worth of goods to make back £200 of stolen goods. In addition, they are often working alone, unable to call in back-up from another staff member, and left literally at the mercy of the perpetrator and the trauma of the event. How can this be right?

The removal of this legislation would send a signal to those who perpetrate shop theft: it is very clear that you will be prosecuted; your actions matter; and you will be held to account. It would show that this Government really hold our retailers, who have kept our country going through the pandemic, in high regard, and that the retailers can have confidence that justice will be served. I beg to move.

My Lords, we support my noble friend Lord Dholakia in wanting to protect small shopkeepers by calling on the police and CPS to take low-level shoplifting more seriously. Repeated low-level theft adds up and, as my noble friend has just said, when the profit margins are typically around only 8%, you need to sell a lot of goods to make up for those losses. This is particularly a problem if perpetrators do not believe that the police and courts will take effective action. I would welcome a response from the Minister to reassure small shopkeepers that the Government take this issue seriously—and that includes what action they will take in response to my noble friend’s amendment.

My Lords, I am not sure that this requires a change in the law; I think the problem lies elsewhere. Section 176 should have been an improvement; low-value shoplifting offences should have been dealt with much more quickly and efficiently.

The Home Office guidance for implementing Section 176 is very clear. It sets out, for example, that repeat offenders, organised criminals and people going equipped should all be referred to the CPS for prosecution, rather than using the simplified procedures. I am interested to hear the Minister’s thoughts.

Something has gone wrong. I am going to guess that it is a consequence of 11 years of austerity inflicted on police forces. Rather than being a legal problem, it is a simple operational matter of the police not having the resources to deal with the problem—they cannot respond, investigate or prosecute. I think the solution lies in policing and not the law.

My Lords, we too want to protect shopkeepers. I endorse the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, backed up by the noble Lord, Lord Paddick. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, made an interesting point when she said it was not necessarily a mistake of law but in the application of the law that this problem has emerged.

I too received the briefing from the British Independent Retailers Association; its figures are stark. I also have the previous statements by Kit Malthouse, the relevant Minister. He has said that he is happy to look at the data to see what it tells us about the operation of the policy, now that we are four or five years in. I do not think there is any problem with us reviewing the data internally, deciding whether the policy is working and then promulgating some kind of best practice. However, in January 2021, in response to a Written Question on when the Government was planning to review the operation of Section 176, the Minister said that it would be part of a wider, post-legislative review of the Act but that no date had yet been set.

The point I want to make to the Minister is that there is some urgency on this. The system does not seem to be working very well. From my own experience as a magistrate sitting in London, I cannot remember the last time I saw a youth come to court for shoplifting—they never come to court for shoplifting; we see them for much more serious offences. I am not saying that they should be brought to court for shoplifting but that they are being dealt with in another way and it is questionable whether that alternative is appropriate. We do see low-level shoplifting in adult magistrates’ courts, but it tends to be by multiple, repeat offenders, who are part of a gang. We see that element of shoplifting, but we do not see occasional, low-level shoplifters in court very much. They are being dealt with in other ways, and this may be part of the problem.

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, for tabling his amendment and for explaining it in considerable detail.

I start by expressing my support and respect for all those who work in the retail sector. Shops are the lifeblood of our communities and neighbourhoods. As the noble Lord pointed out, that fact was perhaps amplified by the pandemic. It is important that businesses should be free to trade without fear of crime or disorder. I recognise the significant impact that shoplifting can have, not only on businesses but on the wider community and consumers. It is vital that perpetrators are brought to justice. As the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, pointed out, it is not a victimless crime.

Section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 inserted Section 22A of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980. This provides that shoplifting, where the value of good stolen is less than £200, is a summary only offence. However, the provision preserves the right of adult defendants to elect to be tried by jury in the Crown Court, and this offence can be prosecuted by the police. The aim of Section 176 was to improve efficiency, as the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, has noted—perhaps he is not seeing these people because the system is operating more efficiently; I do not know the answer, but it is a possibility. The provision was intended to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system by allowing for a simpler, more proportionate, police-led process in high-volume, low-level, uncontested cases, so as to ensure that such cases were dealt with as swiftly and efficiently as possible. It is in retailers’ interests for cases to be brought to a quick conclusion.

I understand that there is a perception among retailers that the introduction of Section 176 led police forces to treat £200 as a threshold for prioritising their response to shop theft. The perception is that the police do not respond to or investigate shop theft where the goods stolen are below that value. Let me be clear: that was not the intention of the provision.

In 2019, the Government ran a call for evidence on the issue of violence and abuse against shop staff to better understand the problems faced by retail workers and the measures which may help prevent these crimes. The Government’s response to that call for evidence was published in July last year. Some respondents raised concerns about the changes introduced by Section 176, stating that it was their impression that such crimes would no longer be investigated by the police. They considered this to be a contributory factor behind increased brazenness among offenders.

I should note at this point that, at a later stage of the Bill, we are due to debate a couple of amendments—one put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and one by my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe—on the subject of offences against retail workers.

Let me be clear: shoplifting offences involving the theft of goods up to £200 can and should be pursued by the police as a criminal offence. Section 176 has no bearing on the ability of the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute a person for theft from a shop or on the courts’ powers to punish offenders. The Government highlighted this in their response to the call for evidence in July 2020. In September 2020, the Minister for Crime and Policing reiterated the message in a letter to police and crime commissioners and chief constables, to ensure that the intention of Section 176 of the 2014 Act was understood. The Minister stated:

“Section 176 of the 2014 Act does not constrain the ability of the police to arrest or prosecute someone in the way they feel is most appropriate.”

I would like to highlight the programme of work under way by the National Retail Crime Steering Group, which the Minister for Crime and Policing co-chairs with the British Retail Consortium—specifically Tom Ironside, who is the director of business and regulation. The steering group brings together the Government, retailers, trades unions and trade associations, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and the police-led National Business Crime Centre to help ensure that the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be. Through the steering group, six task and finish groups were created. They have published free to use, downloadable resources for retailers and employees, including information to assist with reporting these crimes and guidance on how to effectively share the information effectively with other businesses and the police, so that crimes can be investigated and appropriate action taken against offenders.

As part of that work, the National Business Crime Centre undertook a survey of police forces, asking about the reporting of retail crime. The survey specifically asked whether forces had a policy where the monetary value of shop theft determined whether the crime was investigated. Thirty-four out of 43 forces responded. I emphasise that the survey found that no forces used a £200 threshold for making decisions about responding to shoplifting offences. One force stated that it used a monetary value alongside other factors, such as the shoplifter being an identified offender or the use of violence.

There is nothing to suggest that repealing Section 176 would assist police in responding to shop theft. Particularly when it is committed by prolific offenders, shop theft is most effectively tackled when retailers and local policing teams work together—for example, through business crime reduction partnerships and other initiatives—to share information about crime.

I hope I have reassured the noble Lord to some extent that Section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 does not prevent these low-level shoplifting offences being investigated by police and the perpetrator being brought to justice. On this basis, I ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his explanation. A large number of these businesses are owned by people from our diverse communities, and corner shops are areas of high crime rates. They have made a number of representations to me. I shall discuss the Minister’s comments with them and, if need be, come back later, if possible. In the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 132 withdrawn.

House resumed. Committee to begin again not before 8.20 pm.