The Association of Convenience Stores has responded to the publication of record new crime figures from the Office for National Statistics, highlighting the continued need for action on shop theft and other retail crime offences.
The figures, released this morning, show the number of shoplifting offences that have been recorded by the police over the last year. In the year to March 2025, shoplifting offences rose by 20% to 530,643 from 444,022 in the previous year. This is the highest figure recorded by the ONS since the figures started being collected in this way in 2003, continuing a trend of record-breaking levels of theft.
Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said: “These record-breaking shop theft figures continue to demonstrate the need for retail crime to be taken seriously throughout the justice system, as only then will we be able to start bringing the numbers down and stop widespread reoffending by criminals that are acting with confidence that they will not be apprehended. While there is still a huge gap between the recorded figures and the reality of the number of thefts taking place, the one positive to take from these numbers is that more crimes are being reported, although this is still far too low. We encourage retailers to report every crime that is committed against their business.”
Figures from the ACS 2025 Crime Report show that convenience stores recorded over 6.2million incidents of shop theft over the last year and that more than half of retailers (59%) believed that organised crime had increased over the last year. The report highlights significant challenges with the level of crime reporting – just over a third of all crimes (36%) were reported to the police by retailers over the last year, with those figures much lower for shop theft incidents.
Lowman continued: “Retailers tell us that they won’t report crime if they have no faith in it being investigated. There are pockets of good practice around the country: slick and effective reporting platforms, committed officers investigating theft and other crimes, and effective penalties that can break the cycle of reoffending, but these examples are still too rare. The Government must keep resourcing the police and demanding effective enforcement to support local shops.”
The Crime and Policing Bill will be introduced later this year, making it a separate offence to assault a shopworker among other measures. ACS has been calling for a complete reset on the perception of retail crime and especially shop theft, with an ambition to send a clear message that theft is a crime that will be investigated by local forces.
