Recommendation 19

HM Government Deferred

National leadership in the response to retail crime is provided by the NRCSG. The NRCSG is an ongoing forum which brings together Government, the police, retailers and others to help ensure the response to retail crimes is as robust as it can be. The NRCSG meets approximately every six months and is co-chaired by the Minister for Crime and Policing, Kit Malthouse, and Tom Ironside, Director of Business and Regulation at the British Retail Consortium. The Task and Finish groups were project groups tasked with addressing specific actions from the Government’s response to the Call for Evidence on Violence and Abuse Toward Shop Staff. The objectives agreed with the NRCSG were achieved, and the outcomes met the actions in the Call for Evidence. The resources produced by the four Task and Finish groups established in June 2020 were published in April 2021 and will be kept under review by the Home Office working with members of the NRCSG, and will be updated as needed. The four Task and Finish groups produced the following resources: • The communications group: the #Shopkind communications for both employees and employers to make clear violence and abuse of shop workers is not tolerated; • The reporting group: a best practice guide to support staff in reporting these crimes when they occur and to ensure a suitable response can be delivered; • The data sharing group: good practice on effective data sharing between businesses and the police to ensure information can be used to better understand the problem; and • The victims’ group: resources to support victims, and to assist employers in supporting their employees. In June 2021 we set up two new Task and Finish groups: • Substance misuse: to look at the causes of retail violence, such as drug and alcohol addiction, and what can be done to address these in the retail setting; • Information sharing: to take forward issues identified by both the Reporting and Data Sharing Task and Finish groups, to provide greater clarity on data protection standards under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and explore the development of a national Information Sharing Agreement. The Home Office provided £1m of funding for the NBCC over three years (2016–2019). This funding was provided through the Police Transformation Fund to get the NBCC up and running. The NBCC is exploring additional funding streams such as commercial funding and income generation. The NBCC is now an established specialist function, it is therefore appropriate that ongoing funding is provided from police forces. The Metropolitan Police Service and City of London Police are committed to funding the posts which make up the NBCC. The Home Office considers the NBCC to be a valuable asset to policing and the business sector and we are committed to working closely with the NBCC on all aspects of business crime. Although the NBCC will not be directly funded by the Home Office, it will receive appropriate Government support to ensure it can fulfil its national co-ordination role. The NBCC website is a hosting the Shopkind resources and received a small amount of Home Office funding to add this to the website. The website is promoting Shopkind and the broader work of the NRCSG, and has the appropriate resources to do so. The Home Office is working with the NBCC and the Digital Public Contact (DPC) Programme to scope options and timescales for business crime reporting services, including violence towards retail workers, to be hosted online through a single platform. If a viable option is identified, the Home Office will consider providing funding to set up this online reporting service. The Government is delivering on the people’s priorities by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. This sends a clear message that we are committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle the scourge of crime. As a result of their hard work and commitment, police forces in England and Wales have recruited 9,814 additional officers and have therefore exceeded the first target of 6,000 additional officers by March 2021. This year (year two of the programme) we are providing £425m to spend on the recruitment of 6,000 additional officers by 2022. Of this, PCCs will receive £415m for territorial policing and Regional Organised Crime Units. Business Crime Reduction Partnerships