One in nineteen people faced theft offence in London. Shoplifting and theft-from-the-person rose sharply by 48 per cent and 39 per cent respectively in the recent crime statistics of England and Wales.

Rachel Reeves announced the Labour Budget 2024 would include additional funding for the training of police officers and retailers “to crack down on the shoplifting and organised gangs which target retailers”.  

Two hundred thirty-nine organised crime gangs operate in London, as per the FOI report of Metropolitan Police. 

The funding is likely to increase the public sector expenditure on police service in UK, which reached a decade high of £27.3 billion.   

Addressing organised crime is costly, with the annual expense estimated at £47 billion as per the Serious and Organised Strategy report 2023-2028. 

Moreover, Reeves proposed scraping immunity for low value shoplifting to safeguard the interests of shopkeepers and retail businesses.  

Under Section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, shop theft worth £200 or less are ‘low value shoplifting’, considered for police-led prosecution and triable in Magistrate court.  

The maximum sentence of such offence is six months in custody or a fine. Removing £200 threshold might increase the maximum punishment up to seven years.  

Westminster recorded the most shoplifting incidents, followed by Croydon and Camden. Bexley witnessed the highest spike in shoplifting cases by seventy-six per cent, contributing to over a total of 70,000 such crimes in London in the year ending June 2024.  

Theft offence increased by 10 per cent and robberies by 13 per cent in 2024, affecting more than half a million people in the Capital. 

Westminster reported more than 70,000 cases, the highest followed by Camden and Southwark.  

The statistics come amid broader discussions about public safety and the effectiveness of current crime prevention measures in the Capital.  

The total number of crimes in London reached the highest across all the areas in England and Wales.   

London reported nearly 950,000, leading in categories like robbery, burglary, bicycle theft, theft from the person, violence with injury, other theft offences, and drug offences.