Ms Clark shared her experience working in retail and highlighted the increase in violence, threats, and abuse towards shop workers. She mentioned that there have been 300,000 incidents involving shoplifting, abuse, and violence in Co-op stores alone within a year. Additionally, she pointed out that serious organised crime is behind much of the theft and abuse, with retail workers often being attacked physically or threatened with weapons.

I went with USDAW to see shop workers in Putney and was surprised by the numerous incidents of violent attacks and intimidation faced by workers. I agree that making violence against shop workers a specific criminal offence would make things safer for them.

I mentioned violent and antisocial incidents towards shop workers in Harrow town centre. I asked my hon. Friend to encourage the Minister to allocate a dedicated town centre police team for Harrow, similar to other London town centres.

Retail workers are facing increased verbal and physical abuse, with incidents doubling since 2019. Two-thirds of USDAW members working in retail suffer from customer abuse, and there has been a 25% increase in shoplifting over the past year. Retail crime is linked to drug addiction, yet treatment services have been cut. The reduction in police presence on high streets encourages criminal activity.

I highlighted the severe fear and intimidation retail staff face, particularly from young people stealing items at night. I suggested that more must be done to protect their security, including panic buttons or immediate police access.

I stated that violence and abuse against shop workers impact every constituency in the UK. I also noted that tackling this issue does not seem to be a priority for the Government Benches, with no speakers from there present. There are 9,000 retail workers in Stockport and over 523,000 in the north-west region. Retail jobs face issues like antisocial behaviour, violence, threats, shoplifting, with daily incidents of about 850. USDAW's survey reported that 65% of retail workers had been verbally abused, 42% threatened and 17.5% assaulted, including 4.8% in the past year. With significant police force cuts under Conservative government since 2010, the retail sector faces a perfect cocktail of failure due to legislative inaction and resource shortages. Mr Mishra intervened to ask the Minister for a commitment to meet USDAW, which is the sectoral trade union for retail workers. He emphasized the importance of acknowledging that low-paid retail workers are at the forefront of this crisis.

Steven Bonnar highlighted the increase in retail crime and abuse, citing a Scottish retail crime report that found 100% of respondents experienced shop theft at least once daily. He noted a sharp rise to 70 incidents per day in Scotland compared to 45 before the pandemic. He also mentioned the economic toll, with retailers spending £715 million on crime prevention and customer theft accounting for £953 million out of a total cost of £1.76 billion.