To possible sighs of relief from shopkeepers and retailers, tomorrow's King's speech, when the business of the new government's first term will be laid out, appears likely to include a specific crime on assaulting retail workers.

The new law, which looks set to become part of the Crime and Policing Bill, will make assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker a statutory standalone offence - and as trading conditions for Gloucestershire shops continue to worsen, it has been a long time coming.

Under Rishi Sunak, the previous government had signalled its intention to introduce the same measure in England and Wales later this year, but the earlier-than-expected election doomed the change in what administrative time the Conservative government had left.

Back in April, when she was Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, Labour's Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones (who is now a parliamentary under-secretary in the Ministry of Justice) visited Gloucester to talk about a Conservative "shoplifting charter".

Ms Davies-Jones said at the time: "We know sadly that theft and shoplifting has gone up 50% and attacks on shopworkers are all too common and talking to people in the town centre they don't feel safe." 

Amid constrained resources, she added that police did not have time to pursue theft incidents where the value of loss was lower than £200.

The Times has now reported that assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker will become a standalone offence and the indication arrives as Tesco boss Ken Murphy made a public call for the government to make changes as incidents in the supermarket's stores continue to increase despite tens of millions being invested to counter crime.

Mr Murphy said: "A single assault on a shop worker is unacceptable, but this steep rise must see this issue put right at the heart of the incoming government's legislative agenda."

Action on the retail issue comes after the Federation of Small Businesses carried out research that showed a rise in threatening behaviour, intimidation, and/or assault over the last four years, alongside increased reports of serious organised shop theft.

Some 27% of small business owners told the FSB they had experienced threatening behaviour or assault. 

And as exclusively highlighted by Punchline-Gloucester.com earlier this year, the issue is becoming so frequent that some shopkeepers in the county no longer bother to inform police.

Daily recording of alleged crimes against shop workers skyrocketed by 50% to 1,300 last year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said, while the total cost of theft from shops came to around £1.8bn in 2023.

In other research the BRC conducted, it found that:

● High levels of retail violence and abuse were persisting at over 850 incidents per day.

● Retail colleagues are being physically assaulted and threatened with weapons.

● Nearly a billion lost to customer theft, with eight million incidents in 2021/22.

Helen Dickinson, BRC CEO, said: "The pandemic has normalised appalling levels of violent and abusive behaviour against retail workers. While a confrontation may be over in minutes, for many victims, their families and colleagues, the physical and emotional impact can last a lifetime."

● In Gloucestershire, claims that the issue may have fallen down a list of policing priorities could be substantiated by a search for news reports from the county's constabulary: checked today, the last publicised police operation was conducted in January 2021.