On 29 April 2026, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 received Royal Assent. Tucked inside one of the largest single pieces of policing legislation in a decade is a change that the British Retail Consortium has been lobbying for since the pandemic: a new, standalone criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker. For shops, supermarkets, convenience stores and the security teams that stand behind their counters, this is the most significant legal shift in retail crime enforcement in a generation.
The headline is straightforward. Attacking a shop worker is no longer just a generic common assault buried in police statistics. It is its own offence, separately recorded, with its own sentencing framework, and with a presumption that first-time offenders will leave court with a Criminal Behaviour Order attached to their name. The practical question for retailers is what this changes on the shop floor, and what should change in their security protocols before the offence comes into operational force.
What the new retail worker assault law actually does
Under the Crime and Policing Act 2026, assaulting a retail worker becomes a specific criminal offence in England and Wales. The maximum penalty is six months in prison and/or an unlimited fine. On a first conviction, courts are under a presumption to impose a Criminal Behaviour Order, the modern successor to the ASBO. A CBO can ban the offender from named premises, from certain streets, or from entering retail areas at certain times, and breach is itself a criminal offence.
The Act also repeals section 22A of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980. That provision, inserted by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, had set a £200 threshold below which shop theft was effectively triaged as low-level summary-only crime. Removing it means all shop theft can again be treated with full criminal weight, regardless of the value of goods involved.
It is important to be precise about timing. Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 means the Act is law. Commencement is staged. Many provisions are expected to come into force around 29 June 2026, with others phased in by secondary legislation. Until the commencement date for the retail worker offence is formally announced, prosecutions for assaults on shop staff continue under the existing common assault and ABH regimes. The window between Royal Assent and commencement is when sensible retailers prepare.
Why Parliament moved on it
The figures the BRC has been publishing tell a story that became politically impossible to ignore. The 2026 Crime Report identified roughly 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers every single day, and 5.5 million thefts a year. That is not a problem confined to flagship London stores. It is daily reality in convenience shops, supermarkets and small independents from Cornwall to Cumbria.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, called the Act a “long-overdue turning point” and pressed for consistent, visible police enforcement to back it up. That second half is significant. The Act on its own does not put officers in stores. It changes the legal label on a behaviour. Whether that translates into deterrence depends entirely on what retailers, police forces and security providers do next.
What this means for retailers and security teams
Three things should be on every operations manager’s checklist before commencement.
Reporting practice has to tighten. A standalone offence only generates meaningful data, and meaningful enforcement, if incidents are actually reported. For years, shop staff have been told informally that minor assaults are “not worth the paperwork.” That has to end. Every incident, including verbal threats accompanied by physical contact, should be logged in an incident management system, reported to police with a crime reference number, and retained for evidence. Body-worn footage, CCTV time-stamps, and contemporaneous witness statements from colleagues all materially raise the chance of charge and conviction.
Guard protocols need to anticipate CBO evidence. If a court is going to impose a Criminal Behaviour Order, it needs evidence about the offender’s pattern of conduct in and around the premises. That means security teams should be capturing not just the assault itself but the wider context: prior visits, behaviour towards staff on those occasions, attempts to enter while excluded. Our guards on retail contracts are increasingly briefed to build that evidential trail from the first incident onwards, rather than reacting to a single flashpoint.
Risk assessments should be revisited. The legal landscape has shifted. The repeal of the £200 shop theft threshold means lower-value theft is back in scope for full investigation, which changes the calculus on whether to detain, document and call police. Store risk assessments written before April 2026 should be reviewed against the new regime, particularly the use of force policies that guards and floor staff are expected to follow.
The Scotland gap, and the delivery driver question
Two limitations are worth knowing. First, the new offence applies in England and Wales. Scotland already has its own protections under the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021, but the regimes are not identical, and multi-site retailers operating across the border need to keep that in mind for staff training. Second, as drafted the Act focuses on workers on retail premises. The BRC and others have raised concerns that delivery drivers, who experience their own pattern of assault and abuse, may not receive equivalent protection. That gap may be addressed in future regulations or secondary legislation.
Need a security review?
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 raises the legal floor, but it does not write itself into store protocols. If you operate a shop, retail park, supermarket or a national retail estate, the months before commencement are the right time to align your security plan with the new regime. Our team supports retailers across London and the UK with SIA-licensed retail security guarding, incident documentation procedures, and CBO-grade evidence handling that stands up at court.
To arrange a review of your current arrangements, call our team on 020 3700 0967, email info@secureonsitesecurity.co.uk, or visit our contact page for a confidential conversation.