The government is to introduce a new law making assaulting retail workers a criminal offense, following pressure from the sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to The Times, this standalone offense will be part of the Crime and Policing bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is expected to be announced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday, July 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tesco<\/a><\/strong> CEO Ken Murphy recently urged the government<\/strong><\/a> to amend the current bill due to the rising number of attacks on store staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Murphy said a 39 percent increase in serious incidents involving weapons during Tesco’s first quarter, calling the figures “truly shocking.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: \u201cA single assault on a shop worker is unacceptable, but this steep rise must see this issue put right at the heart of the incoming government\u2019s legislative agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite Tesco’s investment in security measures, such as body-worn cameras and protective screens, Murphy emphasised more needs to be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Need Career Advice? <\/strong>Get employment skills advice at all levels of your career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n He called the new Labour government to introduce the standalone offense in the upcoming King’s Speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Murphy added: \u201cSadly they are still not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I am calling on the new Labour government to introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker in this week\u2019s King\u2019s Speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported earlier this year that daily incidents against shop workers surged 50 percent to 1,300 in 2023, with theft costing retailers around \u00a31.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow us on <\/strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>X<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government is to introduce a new law making assaulting retail workers a criminal offense, following pressure from the sector. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":62620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[415,3,414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-employment-news","category-business-news","category-uk-business-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}