'This legislation can’t come soon enough': Northern Ireland Retail Consortium calls for tougher laws to protect retail workers

The director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (NIRC), Neil Johnston, has praised the efforts of the PSNI in tackling shoplifting but warned that more must be done to protect retailers and frontline staff.

Mr Johnston noted that reported shoplifting incidents in Northern Ireland rose by 20% in 2023 — from approximately 7,500 to nearly 9,000 cases — in line with similar increases seen across the rest of the UK.

“This year the Office of National Statistics recently reported another 20% increase in England, with a commensurate rise also in Scotland,” he said.

“The latest figures from the PSNI, however, show that in the year to the end of June, reported incidents of shop thefts dropped back down to 8,500 in Northern Ireland.”

While welcoming the decline, Johnston said the underlying reasons for Northern Ireland bucking the UK-wide trend were not yet fully understood.

He explained: “The reasons why Northern Ireland seems to be bucking the trend aren’t entirely clear but I think it’s fair to assume that the hard work of the PSNI is paying dividends.

“Retailers, who are investing considerable sums on crime prevention, and the police need to keep up the good work, however. Shoplifting in Northern Ireland is still at levels markedly higher than the levels that we have seen historically.

“That’s why the NIRC is calling on the NI Executive and the Policing Board to acknowledge the scale of the problem in Northern Ireland and to ensure that the PSNI have adequate staff levels and other resources to enable them to continue to bear down on the scourge of shop thieves.

“NIRC is also repeating its call for the Assembly to do more to protect retail workers. Scotland and England and Wales have all made it a stand-alone criminal offence to assault a retail worker. The NIRC and trade union USDAW have appealed to the Justice Minister, Naomi Long, to put in place similar protections for shop workers here in Northern Ireland.

“We are grateful that the Minister is planning to bring forward legislation to make it an offence to assault a public facing worker. This legislation can’t come soon enough for retail workers in Northern Ireland who are sadly subjected to a range of wholly unacceptable and abusive behaviour including assault on occasions. It would be unacceptable for Northern Ireland to be the only part of the UK where shop workers are without better legal protections.

“NIRC hope that all political parties in Stormont and every individual Assembly Member will get behind the passage of this legislation as a priority in the coming months.”