Scotland’s shopworker protection law has been used 7,056 times in less than two years to report retail-specific cases of abuse or assault of staff and retailers, new figures reveal.
The Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act, which creates an offence of assaulting, threatening or abusing retail workers and provides for a statutory aggravation of that offence where the retail worker is enforcing a statutory age restriction, came into force in August 2021.
The latest figures provided by Police Scotland show up to July 2023 reports included serious assaults (37), common assaults (3,066), and threats and abuse (3,953).
SGF says it has approached Police Scotland, the Scottish government, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Office to ensure these figures are reported frequently and provide additional data on referrals and convictions relating to the act. The trade body says this is essential information to show the act is a working deterrent.
SGF Chief Executive, Pete Cheema, said: “While we welcome the figures on the POW Act provided by Police Scotland, we really need to know how many of those cases are being brought to justice. That would encourage more retailers to report the crimes happening in-store, daily, and could be an effective way of making potential perpetrators think twice.”
Are you concerned about rising crime? Email lwells@55north.com
