Police-recorded shoplifting offences in England and Wales jump 25%

The total is higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20, but below the figure for 2018/19.

A rise in shoplifting and business fraud have helped drive an increase in the level of police-recorded crime (Joe Giddens/PA) (PA Archive)

Shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales have risen by 25% in the past year, figures show.

Some 365,164 offences were recorded in the year to June 2023, up a quarter on the previous 12 months.

The data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday comes after major retailers raised concerns about the rising cost of theft.

The figure is 2% above the 359,236 offences in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20, but not as high as the 375,350 offences in 2018/19.

Total police-recorded theft rose by 10% in the year to June 2023, though this is still below pre-pandemic levels.

The ONS released police data alongside the findings of the annual crime survey, where members of the public are interviewed separately about their experiences.

The overall number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in the year to June 2023 stood at 6.7 million, compared with 6.5 million in the previous 12 months and 6.1 million in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20.

This is likely to reflect a number of factors, including better recording of offences by the police, more victims reporting crime and the addition of new types of offences, as well as “genuine increases in some types of crime”, all of which have made “substantial contributions to rises in recorded crime over recent years”, the ONS said.

The latest increase has been mainly driven by the increase in shoplifting, together with a jump in fraud offences against businesses – more of which is being reported due to action by industry bodies, the ONS added.

In contrast, the crime survey for England and Wales for the year ending June 2023 suggests people aged 16 and over experienced 8.4 million offences, down 10% on 9.4 million in the previous 12 months and a fall of 18% from 10.2 million in a survey for the year ending March 2020.

The report measures experiences of crime in the 12 months before interview, meaning the latest survey, which was conducted between July 2022 and June 2023, reflects crimes that could have occurred as far back as July 2021.

Experiences of crimes, as measured by the ONS survey, have been on a broad downwards trend since the mid-1990s.

The police data for England and Wales also shows:

– Robbery offences increased by 11% to 77,337 compared with the previous year, but remained 14% lower than before the pandemic.

– Knife offences (excluding Devon and Cornwall) rose 3% to 50,833, but were 7% lower than the year to March 2020.

– Firearms offences (excluding Devon and Cornwall) rose by 13%, to a similar level before the pandemic. The biggest rise was for imitation firearms, which went up 26% to 2,566 from 2,031 offences.

– The number of homicides fell 10% to 602, compared with 667 the previous year.

The three forces with the highest levels of knife crime were the Met, Greater Manchester Police and West Midlands Police.

While Greater Manchester saw a drop of 16% and the West Midlands 5%, the Met saw a rise of 21%, although still below pre-pandemic levels.

Knife possession offences were also up across England and Wales, rising by 10% to 28,211 in the year to June 2023, although the ONS said the increase could be due to police crackdowns.

The total number of violence against the person offences has been on an upwards trend since 2014, but the latest figures indicate this may have levelled off, with 2.10 million recorded in the year to June, compared with 2.12 million in the previous 12 months.

“This could suggest that improvements to recording practices are beginning to have less impact on trends in these offences,” the ONS said.

Some 193,096 sexual offences were recorded by police in England and Wales in the year to June 2023, down slightly on 196,297 in the previous 12 months.

Rape offences have also fallen slightly over the same period, from 70,456 to 68,109.

Billy Gazard of the ONS said: “Our latest data shows crime continues to fall and is down 10% compared with 12 months ago.

“This decline in crimes against people and households has been driven by falls in criminal damage and fraud offences.

“While falls in criminal damage and fraud reported to Action Fraud (the public-facing reporting body) were also reflected in police-recorded crime, police figures also showed increases in crimes against businesses, such as shoplifting.

“Nationally, there has been a small increase in knife crime, although levels remain below those seen pre-pandemic. However, the picture varies across the country.”