Tag Archives: shoplifting

Mark Valladares

24 July 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 24th July 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • Unsolved crime epidemic continues as shoplifting cases soar by 20%
  • UK/India Trade Deal: Only a fraction of what we could get from the EU
  • Ed Davey calls for UK airdrops to get aid to Gazans
  • Welsh Lib Dems comment as waiting lists rise again

Unsolved crime epidemic continues as shoplifting cases soar by 20%

Following the release of new crime statistics, the Liberal Democrats have accused the Labour Government of not doing enough to tackle the “unsolved crime epidemic” left behind by the previous Conservative government.

The statistics revealed that in the year ending March 2025, shoplifting offences soared by 20% to the highest figure on record since current police recording practices began in 2003. 530,643 shoplifting offences were recorded across England and Wales, compared to 444,022 in the previous year.

56% of these cases went unsolved, while just 20% resulted in a suspect being charged or summonsed.

The statistics also uncover the shocking extent of unsolved crime in England and Wales. 2,071,156 crimes went unsolved in the year ending March 2025. This is equivalent to 5,674 crimes going unsolved every single day.

Meanwhile, just 387,891 crimes resulted in a suspect being charged or summonsed – accounting for less than 7.3% of cases.

In the wake of these new statistics, the party has renewed their call on the Government to scrap Police and Crime Commissioners and invest the savings in frontline policing, enabling a return to proper community policing with more bobbies on the beat.

The party would replace PCCs with local Police Boards made up of councillors and representatives from relevant local groups, which would be properly accountable to the communities they serve, at a fraction of the cost of PCCs.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Lisa Smart MP said:

Every day, thousands of innocent victims are being left without the justice they deserve after falling victim to heartless criminals. It is an absolute scandal.

The previous Conservative government left behind a legacy of failure, but the Labour government has not been quick enough to address the unsolved crime epidemic – particularly as shoplifting spirals out of control.

This neglect of victims cannot be allowed to continue. Our high streets and communities deserve better than this. If the Government wants to deliver safer streets, cracking down on the unsolved shoplifting epidemic must take priority.

Scrapping wasteful Police and Crime Commissioners is the first step towards returning to real community policing and getting more bobbies on the beat.

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Posted in News, Press releases and Wales | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

7 May 2025 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Wed 7th May 2025 - 11:40 pm

Let’s see if we can restore this feature…

  • Lib Dems tell Government to stop “flip-flopping” and introduce EU Youth Mobility Scheme without delay
  • Lib Dems slam Govt as “asleep at the wheel” on tech as Labour rejects common-sense reforms to Data Bill
  • The ghost of Liz Truss: Lib Dems attack Welsh Conservatives unfunded tax cuts
  • Shoplifting rises by a third across Scotland

Lib Dems tell Government to stop “flip-flopping” and introduce EU Youth Mobility Scheme without delay

Responding to the Government’s comments that they may finally be implementing a Youth Mobility Scheme with the EU, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Europe James MacCleary has said:

Labour now needs to stop flip-flopping and introduce an EU Youth Mobility Scheme without delay. Our young people won’t forgive them if they don’t.

For months now, the Government has totally dismissed the idea of extending a scheme we already have in place with countries like Australia and Japan to our European allies.

Securing a youth mobility scheme with the EU would be a common sense win-win – creating new opportunities for our young people and delivering a much-needed boost to our economy.

Lib Dems slam Govt as “asleep at the wheel” on tech as Labour rejects common-sense reforms to Data Bill

The Lib Dems have hit out at the Government’s ‘sell-out’ approach to tech policy as Labour MPs vote against “common-sense reforms” in the Data Bill this evening.

Labour MPs rejected plans proposed by the Lib Dems to restrict companies’ access to the personal data of under-16s and to protect British creatives from having their work scraped by AI models in the Commons this evening.

The online safety legislation would have protected children between 13 and 16 from having their data harvested by social media giants. Tech companies can use the data of under-16s to drive hyper-targeted advertising and content pushed by addictive algorithms, driving children’s engagement with digital content.

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Posted in News, Press releases, Scotland and Wales | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 6 Comments
Mark Valladares

10 April 2024 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 10th April 2024 - 10:30 pm
  • Government amendment on “deeply damaging” non-disclosure agreements does not go far enough to protect victims
  • Shoplifting: Govt continues to let organised gangs off the hook
  • Cole-Hamilton criticises state of sewage monitoring
  • SNP burn through ScotWind cash in record time
  • McArthur responds to opposition to assisted dying bill

Government amendment on “deeply damaging” non-disclosure agreements does not go far enough to protect victims

After tireless campaigning by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, the Government in the House of Lords has tabled an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill that ensures non-disclosure agreements preventing victims from disclosing information to the police or other bodies (including confidential support services) cannot be legally enforced.

Responding to the tabling of this amendment, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said:

The Liberal Democrats have long been campaigning to end the deeply damaging practice of non-disclosure agreements. This amendment is a welcome move that will help victims to access the support they need.

But while this is a step in the right direction, the Government is not going far enough in giving victims their voice back.

We need a complete ban of NDAs in cases of sexual misconduct, harassment and bullying to ensure that no victim is silenced.

Shoplifting: Govt continues to let organised gangs off the hook

Responding to the news that assaulting a shop worker will be made a separate criminal offence in England and Wales, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

For too long, the Conservative Government have been sitting on their hands while hardworking shopkeepers are left to face the brunt of the shoplifting epidemic alone.

As the majority of shoplifting cases go unsolved, the Conservatives has repeatedly failed to get even the basics right of tackling this issue – something their new gimmicks won’t change.

It is now vital the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary invest in proper community policing and ensure all shoplifting thefts are investigated.

The government is currently letting organised criminal gangs off the hook and leaving shopkeepers hugely vulnerable.

Cole-Hamilton criticises state of sewage monitoring

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has called on the SNP and Greens to get tough with Scottish Water as it was revealed that in three local authorities there is no monitoring of sewage dumping at all and in ten more local authorities just one or two sites are monitored.

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Mary Reid

The shoplifting epidemic

By Mary Reid | Thu 16th November 2023 - 6:43 pm

I live in one of those quieter outer London suburbs, but over the last few months I have noticed that larger shops have introduced higher levels of security. Some supermarkets now have a member of staff apparently on greeting duty, and others have fitted extra barriers and even gates.

A large M&S Food store near me now has gates into and out of the drinks section – I once got stuck in there when the exit gate refused to open and I couldn’t go back out through the entry gate until someone else approached it and triggered the latch. Yes, I know …..

It seems shoplifting has increased dramatically. And part of the reason is because the response rate from the police is so low, and shoplifters know they can get away with it.

Back in September an article in the Guardian carried the troubling headline: ‘It’s organised looting’: UK in grip of a shoplifting epidemic, say store owners.  It claimed that shoplifting had doubled in the last three years.

(The Co-op) claimed that police failed to respond to 71% of serious retail crimes, and that bosses were considering whether it was safe and commercially viable to keep some branches open.

Paul Gerrard, the chain’s director of public affairs and a former customs officer, described some of the shoplifting as “organised looting”, saying gangs would climb over kiosks and brazenly empty shelves into rucksacks, construction bags and even wheelie bins.

…

The company said it had been forced to spend more than £200m to counter criminal behaviour, with measures such as body-worn cameras and headsets for staff and “dummy” packaging for items such as £6 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and £6 jars of Kenco coffee to deter thieves from looting or “bulk-shoplifting”.

It has also hired undercover guards, often former police officers, who can detain shoplifters until police arrive. But Gerrard often feels their efforts are in vain because officers don’t always attend.

“We then have to let the shoplifters go, which actually is worse than intervening in the first place because that means they know, and they’ll tell all their mates, that even if they catch you the police don’t turn out. The point here is that the risk for an offender is minimal,” he said.

Rob Blackie, the Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, has been looking into this problem across London. He has discovered that there have been 23,881 calls for shoplifting to the police on 999 since the beginning of the year. That is a massive increase of 49% on the comparable period last year.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 18 Comments
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