The new Labour government is expected to make assaulting retail workers a crime this week, as supermarket bosses such as Tesco CEO Ken Murphy urge for a change in the law.

As part of its Crime and Policing Bill, Labour is to make assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker a standalone statutory offence, which is to be announced on Wednesday in the King’s Speech, The Times reported.

It comes as Murphy has called on the government to introduce changes to better protect store workers as attacks have rocketed in recent months.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the number of daily incidents surged 50% to 1,300 in 2023.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Last year, Tesco began offering its store workers body cameras as physical assault cases on staff soared to more than 200 each month, a move Murphy said was a “necessary measure”.

However, he told the publication that “sadly, they are still not enough”, adding “that’s why I am calling on the new Labour government to introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker in this week’s King’s Speech”.

He explained that the number of incidents was “truly shocking” as 11 store workers were assaulted every day at Christmas, and 39% of serious incidents involved a weapon during the first quarter of 2024.

“A single assault on a shop worker is unacceptable, but this steep rise must see this issue put right at the heart of the incoming government’s legislative agenda.

“They [workers] don’t expect to be threatened with knives or forced to watch as criminal gangs loot their store. They don’t deserve to deal with the anxiety of witnessing aggressive thefts or to have to wonder if the same criminals will come back the next day for another go.”

He said the change in law would send the “strongest of signals to the perpetrators of these crimes and give our teams in England and Wales they protections already afforded to their colleagues in Scotland”.

In 2021, Scotland made it a statutory offence to assault, threaten or abuse a retail worker.