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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to tackle the rising 'epidemic' of shoplifting in the UK by giving police stronger powers through her proposed Crime and Policing Bill. The Labour MP's announcement follows a media report revealing that shoplifters are increasingly going unpunished, despite the number of recorded offences soaring to record levels. An analysis of official figures by The Times showed that police recorded 443,995 shoplifting offences in the year leading up to March 2024, a significant increase from 326,440 in the same period a decade ago. However, the number of shoplifters being punished has plummeted, with only 431 fixed penalty notices issued in the past year, a 98 per cent decrease from 2014. Fixed penalty notice is the lowest form of punishment used for theft of goods valued at under £100. Moreover, most police forces did not issue a single penalty for shoplifting last year.

Nottinghamshire Police have released a CCTV image of a man over the theft of £1,400 worth of cosmetic products from a Boots store on Sunday (18 June). Police have made appeal they would like to speak to the man in the CCTV image to in connection with the theft from a Boots store in St Peter's Retail Park, Mansfield. On Sunday (18 June) boxes of eye serum were stolen from the store at around 10.35am. Officers would like to trace the man pictured as they continue with their inquiries into the theft. Police Constable Beth Richards, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Shoplifting is not a victimless crime. Offences of this sort can have a hugely detrimental impact on retailers and wider communities. "We have carried out initial inquiries but are now asking the public to assist us in identifying who this person might be - as he could help aid our investigation.

During a debate on Thursday (5) members of the House of Lords voiced unanimous concern over the alarming rise in retail crime and its impact on businesses, workers, and communities. Lord Hannett of Everton (Labour), former General Secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), initiated the debate, citing alarming statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS figures showed that nearly 470,000 shoplifting offences were recorded across England and Wales in the year leading up to October 2024- a 29 per cent increase and the highest figure since records started in March 2003. Lord Hannett highlighted widespread underreporting of retail crime, noting "many retail workers do not report incidents because they simply do not believe that anything will happen when they do." He pointed to a British Retail Consortium survey revealing over 1,300 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers daily in 2022-2023, with only a third reported to the police and fewer than 8 per cent leading to prosecutions.