Time will tell if new anti-business crime plan working: NIIRTA

The Department of Justice’s blueprint document, called the Business Crime Action Plan, was unveiled on Tuesday.

It includes suggestions such as “exploring options for defining business crime and, as appropriate, agree a definition for use in Northern Ireland”, as well as encouraging “cyber resilience” through the Cyber Essentials Scheme, as well as the idea of producing a “bi-annual assessment of business community concerns”.

Glyn Roberts, head of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) said he was “pleased there is a strategy in place”.

However, he added that “ultimately, how we know it’s effective is seeing our members, seeing a reduction in crime and business crime figures dropping generally”.

He said: “It’s too early to tell, but we’re moving in the right direction definitely.

“The key factor in all of this is will it lead to a reduction in business crime? And that’s ultimately going to be the true witness test in all of this.”

“There’s crime like shoplifting to ATM robberies through to very complex cyber crime as well. So it does cover a very big area and I think that’s when you need a proper partnership approach and that’s really the key, if we can crack that we’ve gone a long way forward in addressing the problem.”