The Crime and Policing Bill, Labour’s first and fullest effort to do what it said in its 2024 manifesto, had its second reading in the House of Lords in mid-October.
Assaulting a shop worker will be a bespoke criminal offence with a presumption that courts will, on conviction, impose a criminal behaviour order on offenders. The Bill also creates a new offence of administering a harmful substance, including by spiking; separately, new targeted offence of concealing identity at designated protests; and a new duty to report child sexual abuse. Opening the debate for the Conservatives in the Lords, Lord Davies of Gower, while broadly supporting the Bill, noted an ‘overall feeling of pessimism is the increase in more visible crimes that impact people’s daily lives. Shoplifting, phone theft, graffiti, vandalism, fare evasion and drug use are highly visible crimes that leave people feeling unsafe’. He queried whether the Bill is ‘actually going to reduce crime’. As he added, on the question of a low-value shop theft, it’s only ‘perceived’ that police can’t take it to court; there’s ‘no reason why theft under £200 cannot be tried summarily’. But as Lord Davies acknowledged, crown courts are ‘clogged up’; as is the wider criminal justice system. What about enforcement of laws? He asked. He summed up: “The Government have been talking tough on crime, but this must now be met with corresponding action.”
After nearly five hours of debate, the Conservative Baroness Neville-Rolfe (who after a career in the civil service was on the board of Tesco, and whose son is a Met Police detective) urged better enforcement against shoplifting, “which has also exploded recently. I know from my time at Tesco how this ruins honest endeavour and allows free-riders free rein. It is so difficult for the staff and there is a wider impact. I remember women putting large jars of Nescafé and beef fillet down their trousers to sell and fund their drug habit and I remember the drudgery and cost of adding security tags to every valuable item.” Arguably the premier parliamentarian in terms of crime and policing experience, Lord Hogan-Howe, the former Met Police Commissioner, also broadly supported the Bill.
In November the Bill is now in committee, going through line by line examination.
More in the review of the year in the December 2025 edition of Professional Security Magazine.
