The British Retail Consortium’s Crime Report 2026, published in February, found that incidents of violence and abuse against UK shopworkers averaged 1,600 a day over the year to August 2025. That is a 20% fall on the previous year’s figure of around 2,000 a day, and on the surface looks like a corner being turned. Read alongside the rest of the report, the number tells a more complicated story.
The same survey records 118 incidents of physical violence and 36 involving a weapon each day, 5.5 million detected shoplifting incidents over the year, retail crime costs of nearly £400 million from shop theft alone, and a further £100 million lost to parcel theft. For boards and operations leaders weighing where to put security budget in 2026, the underlying numbers matter more than the headline.
The headline figures, in plain English
The BRC report covers the period from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025 and draws on data submitted by member retailers covering tens of thousands of UK stores. The figures that have driven most of the press coverage are these:
- 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse against shopworkers per day – down from roughly 2,000 the previous year, but still more than three and a half times the pre-pandemic baseline of 455 a day recorded in 2019-20.
- 118 incidents of physical violence per day – effectively unchanged year on year. The fall in the total is being driven by a reduction in verbal abuse and threats, not in physical assault.
- 36 incidents per day involving a weapon – knives, syringes, hammers and improvised weapons all feature in retailer submissions.
- 5.5 million detected shoplifting incidents across the year, costing retailers nearly £400 million. The BRC notes that undetected theft means the true figure is materially higher.
- Over £5 billion spent by retailers on security in the last five years – CCTV, body-worn cameras, security staff, data analytics and physical hardening.
- 13% of retailers rate the police response as good or excellent, up from 9% the previous year – improvement, but still a minority view.
What the 20% fall does and doesn’t mean
The 20% reduction in violence and abuse is genuine, and the BRC credits it to sustained retailer investment in security technology, closer cooperation with police, and the visible policy attention that culminated in the new standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker introduced by the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
What it does not mean is that the problem is shrinking back to manageable levels. At 1,600 incidents a day, UK retail is still operating at roughly 3.5 times the pre-pandemic rate of staff abuse. The physical violence sub-total has not moved. Weapons are involved in over thirteen thousand incidents a year. The fall is a slowing of the bleeding, not the start of recovery.
Where the costs are landing
Three patterns are worth flagging for any retailer reading the report alongside their own loss-prevention data.
Organised crime is the growth area. The BRC and police-led organisations have been clear that a meaningful share of the 5.5 million shop theft incidents are linked to organised criminal groups targeting high-value, easily-resold lines: alcohol, baby formula, fragrances, power tools, designer clothing. These groups operate across multiple stores and regions and account for losses well out of proportion to their share of incidents.
Parcel theft is a new category in the report. The £100 million figure for stolen deliveries is the first time the BRC has broken this out. For omnichannel retailers, the loss surface has expanded beyond the four walls of the store.
Security spend is structural, not optional. The £5 billion industry investment over five years is not a one-off response to a crisis; it is the new baseline cost of operating a UK retail store. Cutting it back, on the evidence in this report, would reverse the modest progress that has been made.
What this means for retail security teams
For our retail clients across London and the South East, the report reinforces a set of operational priorities we have been advising on through the year.
Door cover is a deterrence question, not a cost question. Visible, SIA-licensed officers at entry points reduce both opportunistic theft and the escalation of incidents to verbal abuse or assault. The link between staffed presence and reduced staff abuse is well-established in the BRC data.
Report everything, even when prosecution looks unlikely. The improvement in police response rates is in part a function of retailers consistently logging incidents. The current 13% good-or-excellent rating will only continue improving if the volume and quality of incident reporting holds up.
Treat repeat offenders as a category. Organised retail crime is best countered by store-by-store intelligence sharing, including with neighbouring businesses and BID-funded radio networks where they exist. A standalone shoplifter is a different problem from a four-person team working a postcode.
Brief staff on the new standalone retail-worker assault offence. The protection introduced by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 only works if staff and managers know it exists and consistently report incidents to police on that basis.
Review lone-working and closing-time procedures. Physical violence has not fallen with the headline figure. Staff most exposed are those on quiet shifts, opening up, or cashing up at close. Procedure reviews and panic-alarm coverage for those windows remain a high-return investment.
Need a security review?
Our team supports independent retailers, multi-site chains and shopping-centre operators across the UK with SIA-licensed retail security officers, loss-prevention support, and security risk assessments aligned to the threats highlighted in the BRC Crime Report 2026.
If you would like a confidential review of your current arrangements – whether that is door cover, internal officers, CCTV monitoring or staff safety procedures — please get in touch:
- Phone: 020 3700 0967
- Email: info@secureonsitesecurity.co.uk
- Online: Contact us
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