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Shoplifting: Sutton Coldfield

Answer

The level of shop theft remains unacceptable. But our action to restore neighbourhood policing is making a difference – including delivering more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles since March 2025.There are signs the tide is turning, with a small fall in shop theft offences by 1% in the year ending December 2025 compared with the previous year. This is compared with increases of nearly 30% in the period before the election.

There is still more to do. That is why we are removing the £200 threshold for shop theft and commencing the new offence of assaulting a retail worker as soon as possible.

We are also equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that drive shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment in the specialist OPAL policing unit is boosting intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of notifiable offences, including shoplifting offences, recorded by the police in England and Wales, at the Police Force Area level and the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Area level. This information is published on a quarterly basis, and can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

The Home Office does not publish information at the Parliamentary Constituency level.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

28285

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Shoplifting Sutton Coldfield

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk