Overview
- Retail Trust data shows 44% of shop staff face abuse or attacks every week, a rise of 10 percentage points year on year.
- Retailers spent £1.8 billion on safety measures last year, up 50% from 2023, funding CCTV, security personnel and body-worn cameras.
- Nearly half of workers are considering leaving their jobs or the retail sector, with many reporting anxiety, nightmares and other mental-health harms.
- A YouGov poll for the Retail Trust found one-third of Britons witnessed someone being rude or abusive to a shop worker in the past year.
- The Crime and Policing Bill would make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence carrying up to six months in custody, though the Retail Trust says deeper shifts in public attitudes drive daily hostility.