21 May 2024 - Tackling Shoplifting - Oral evidence

The issue of shoplifting has recently been the subject of considerable attention in the media. In October 2023, the Government launched the Retail Crime Action Plan which aims to “tackle the rise in shoplifting, catch more offenders and keep retail workers safe”. It includes a new business and policing partnership called Pegasus which seeks to build intelligence about the relationship between shoplifting and organised crime gangs. In the first oral evidence session of the inquiry, the Committee will hear from the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and senior police officers about the Pegasus initiative.

Possible areas of questions include:

• What are the challenges for the police in responding to shoplifting?
• What is the background to the Retail Crime Action Plan and how the Pegasus Project sits within it.
• How were the partners to Pegasus chosen and persuaded to contribute funding and are there any plans to broaden out the partnership initiative to include smaller retailers?
• What are the consequences for retailers not in the partnership?
• What is the role of private companies in providing secretariat support to Pegasus?
• How are the police building up databases about the relationship between organised crime and shoplifting?
• What is the role of retrospective facial recognition technology?

Further information

• About Parliament: Select Committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch Committees