{"value":{"id":1908608,"askingMemberId":5072,"askingMember":null,"house":"Commons","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2026-05-21T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2026-06-03T00:00:00","uin":"3874","questionText":"To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will work with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to provide guidance to parish councils and Business Improvement Districts on technological solutions available to tackle shoplifting in town centres.","answeringBodyId":1,"answeringBodyName":"Home Office","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":true,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":4631,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2026-06-03T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting retail crime.</p><p>Through our Crime and Policing Act, this Government has introduced a new specific standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to help tackle the epidemic of shop theft and violence towards shop workers that we have seen in recent years and protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.</p><p>Additionally, we are removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously</p><p>We are providing £7 million over a three‑year period covering 2025 to 2028, to tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.</p><p>Technological solutions can play a valuable role in preventing and tackling crime. Following the successful roll out of ten new live facial recognition equipped vans last year the Police Reform White Paper announced further investment in facial recognition capabilities and the responsible adoption of these. This included over £11m on live facial recognition capabilities and national coordination of these. 40 new mobile units will be available to support the police in town centres and high crime hot spots across the country.</p><p>Retailers are already encouraged to share images of retail thefts captured on CCTV with the police. The police can then search the CCTV image against their database of images of people who have previously been arrested using retrospective facial recognition, as part of their investigations.</p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Shoplifting: Technology","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/1908608","method":"GET"}]}