Shoplifting falls for the first time in five years

The number of shoplifting offences recorded by police dropped 4% in the year to March 2026 compared with the previous 12 months, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures published on Thursday. At more than 507,000 offences, the total remains 41% higher than in the year to March 2020, the last full year before the pandemic.

Retail crime has been a mounting problem since the pandemic. Retailers have spent billions over the past five years on prevention while working more closely with police through joint initiatives such as the Retail Crime Action Plan.

The Crime and Policing Act, enacted in April this year, created a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker and removed the £200 threshold under which low-value shop theft was tried summarily.

In early July, the Metropolitan Police and around 20 major retailers agreed an action plan for tackling retail crime in London, covering evidence sharing, enforcement against repeat offenders and priority attendance at violent incidents.

Lucy Whing, crime policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium, highlighted progress in tackling shop theft through partnerships between the industry and the authorities, but said there was still much to be done and that the new legislation should be effectively enforced.

“While today’s figures give a welcome indication of progress, the baseline challenge facing retailers across the country remains vast, and the pace of change is far too slow,” Whing said.

The ONS cautioned that part of the reduction in shoplifting may reflect a change in recording practices rather than offending. A clarification of counting rules issued to forces last year moved some incidents into the robbery of business property category, which the agency said was likely to have had a small effect on reducing recorded shoplifting.

It also warned that the increases of recent years captured improved reporting as well as growth in offences, the product of closer engagement between police and retailers.

Industry data published in February points to a far larger problem than the police series captures. The BRC’s annual crime report recorded 5.5 million detected incidents of shop theft across the UK in the year to August 2025, costing retailers close to £400m, with a further £100m lost to delivery theft, a category the report covered for the first time.

That report also showed signs of improvement, with violence and abuse against shopworkers falling by a fifth over the same period.

Co-op was among the retailers that invested tens of millions of pounds during 2025 in tackling rising retail crime, with a focus on staff safety and loss prevention, including new CCTV systems, body-worn cameras for shopfloor colleagues and more security guards in stores. The convenience specialist has also been a vocal campaigner for the Retail Crime Action Plan and for the standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker.

Attacks on Co-op workers fell 21% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, the retailer said.

“Society could not continue to allow a minority of prolific offenders to erode our high streets and we all must continue to work together to make it harder to steal and harder to re-sell stolen goods,” a Co-op spokesperson said. “Co-op is committed to backing high streets and to working together to maintain this momentum, with local shops now gaining the recognition they deserve for being an anchor in the community they serve.”