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Live Reporting Edited by Georgina Morris, with Andrew Segal and Ruth Comerford ‘Shoplifting has become totally normalised’ published at 09:11 BST Alix Hattenstone BBC England Research published last year suggests fewer than three percent of shop thefts are formally reported to the police, retail analyst Catherine Shuttleworth points out. “I think the frightening thing is that shoplifting has become totally normalised, so it’s like an OK crime - but it isn’t,” she says. “There’s two sides.
Gangs of people going into shops, dragging things off shelves and running out again, and violence against shoplifters. I think we’d all say that is terrible. “Then there’s the other side - people who shoplift as an everyday thing - they do self-scanning in shops and they don’t pay for all the items in the basket.” Shuttleworth says there is a misconception that stealing from big companies does not matter, but customers will feel the impact.
“Of course they will notice because prices will go up for everybody. There is a cost to shoplifting that is really real. We’ll all be complaining about it.” The scale of shoplifting in England published at 09:03 BST Ema Sabljak England Data Unit Image source, EPA While the number of shoplifting offences recorded in England and Wales in 2025-26 has dropped slightly compared to the previous year, it is still significantly above pre-pandemic levels.
There were 502,011 offences recorded in 2025-26. That's a little lower than the record-breaking total of 525,741 in 2024-25, but still up 50% on the 334,976 recorded a decade previously in 2015-16. Policing minister Sarah Jones told the BBC we have “turned that corner” on shoplifting - but acknowledged that "we all know there is a lot further that we need to go, and a lot more we need to do".
Tom Holder, spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium, said its surveys suggested these incidents were a fraction of what retailers were facing. "As we see more action from the police, we see the reporting go back up," he said. How does this compare with other UK nations?
In Northern Ireland, shoplifting dropped 4% from 8,586 offences in 2024-25 to 8,243 in the most recent financial year. Meanwhile, it rose by 19% in Scotland during the same period to 53,369. Putting the spotlight on shoplifting published at 08:58 BST It is a growing concern in many communities across England, with poverty, addiction and organised crime among the causes.
Today we're looking at how shoplifting has risen over the last decade, the threat of violence faced by shop workers and the impact on businesses battling this issue on a daily basis. It comes as a new BBC analysis found 270 prolific shoplifters had been connected to at least 28,000 crimes across the country. We'll be hearing from former shoplifters, the police teams unmasking criminal gangs and the people behind community initiatives aiming to turn the tide.
Stay with us throughout the day for more, including the stories shared by listeners across our network of BBC Local radio stations.
Source: BBC
