The crime and policing minister has unveiled the government’s plan to reverse the current £200 threshold in its shoplifting charter, to better tackle the rise in retail crime.

Speaking at the Co-operative party’s retail crime summit in London today (12 November), policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said the current government is to remove the 2014 shoplifting legislation, which makes shop theft involving property with a value of £200 or less a summary-only offence.

The minister explained that the move would axe the charter, introduced by the then Conservative government, and instead replace it with new “tough measures” to crack down on retail crime and protect shop workers.

Johnson said the 2014 rule introduced a “low category shoplifting” to describe the theft of goods under £200, which has led to the police deprioritising cases of even repeat or organised crime within this threshold as they were deemed “low value”.

She said: “It is simply not right to leave business and retail workers at the mercy of criminals. We will therefore remove the £200 threshold and treat shoplifting with the seriousness that it deserves, ending the shameful neglect of shoplifting over the last 10 years.

“Now we know that this isn’t going to be a quick fix. The blame for this unacceptable state of affairs falls at the feet of the last conservative government, who were in power for 14 years”.

Alongside scrapping previous legislation, Johnson also revealed that government is to introduce a new law on assault on shopworkers, adding that the UK was “long overdue a change”.

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“There is no place for anyone who abuses shop workers, and we are going to change the law and come after those who do that,” she said.

Responding to today’s speech, Usdaw union general secretary Paddy Lillis said: “We very much welcome the minister’s speech today and are delighted to now have a Labour Government that has already included key measures in their legislative programme. We now look forward to a much-needed protection of shop workers’ law. 

“It is increasingly common for retail stores to be targeted by organised crime gangs stealing to order. This is in no way a victimless crime, with weapons and violence used to ensure these criminals are not stopped. Having to deal with repeated and persistent offences can cause issues beyond the theft itself like anxiety, fear and physical harm to retail workers.

“Interim results from Usdaw’s latest annual survey found that one in seven retail workers had suffered incidents of violence, threats and abuse that were triggered by shoplifting and armed robbery. Our members are clearly saying enough is enough and Labour is delivering.”

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson added: “We welcome the Labour’s firm stance on shoplifting, with the announcement on extra funding aimed at tackling a scourge that costs the industry over £1.8bn.

“This is on top of the scrapping of the low-level shoplifting threshold, which has resulted in many police forces ignoring smaller crimes. Working closely with the police and Government, retailers are determined to tackle retail crime – from shoplifting, to violence against retail workers.”

The news follows calls from leading retailers for government intervention as retail crime hit record highs over the past year, forcing many supermarkets to take measures into their own hands with the introduction of security robots and other technology to clamp-down on crime.