Retail Crime Survey (Hansard, 28 November 2001)

§ Lord Rooker

The Retail Crime Survey 2000, carried out by the British Retail Consortium, includes the amounts for the 1999 and 2000 calendar years, which are given in the following table:

	1999	2000
Values of losses (£000s)
Customer theft	634,000	746,000
Robbery	4,350	3,700
Till snatches	428	635
Cost of crime prevention (£000s)	554,000	626,000

The above crime prevention costs address all types of crime against retailers, not just those given above.

Levels of expenditure on crime prevention matters by retailers are essentially a private matter for them.

We have, however, established the Retail Crime Reduction Action Team which operates across sect or boundaries to reduce retail crime and develop intervention strategies aimed at preventing the occurrence of retail crime. It has produced a detailed guide on how to go about setting up and operating a local retail crime reduction partnership, and continues to assist with the development of these. There are now some 250 such partnerships covering major shopping centres in England and Wales. The team also supports the Safer Shopping Award which recognises the achievement of good overall security standards in shopping centres and gives active support to the work of Crime Concern in developing primary action groups aimed at deflecting young people from becoming involved in thefts from shops.

We are also providing funding of £15 million over three years for a project to improve security of small retailers in the most deprived areas throughout England and Wales, with £3 million to be spent this financial year and £6 million for each of the years 2002–03 and 2003–04. The money will be used to help retailers to enhance security of their premises by installing additional locks or toughened glass, or may be used to make improvements to their immediate environment. We are currently working with local communities to identify specific sites which can most benefit from the scheme.