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Hospitality Industry: Crimes of Violence

Answer

Through our Crime and Policing Bill, we are introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

This definition of a retail worker captures someone working in or about retail premises for or on behalf of the owner or occupier of the retail premises.

Our definition is intentionally narrow and does not include hospitality staff, given the vital need to provide legal clarity and ensure there is no ambiguity for courts in identifying whether an individual is a retail worker and impacted during their job.

Those workers whose roles are not included within the definition are already covered under other legislation such as the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which also covers more serious violence, such as actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

There is also a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for an offence.

Alongside this, we are ending the effective immunity that currently applies for theft of goods under £200 by repealing section 176 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team to disrupt organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL12569

Session

2024-26

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Staff Crimes of violence Hospitality industry

Legislation

Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk