Tory MP rages at shoplifting epidemic where 'thieves eat for free as rest of us pay'

The shoplifting epidemic blighting Britain has climbed to the highest on record, figures show.

Some 530,643 offences were logged by police in 2024/25, up 20% from 444,022 in 2023/24. It represents the highest total since current police recording practices began in 2002/03.

The figures come as high street retailers witness a massive spike in the number of thieves amid a deepening ongoing cost of living crisis with many refusing to challenge looters and writing stolen stock off.

Tory MP Esther McVey said: "We have absolutely got to tackle shoplifting. We need a zero-tolerance approach because we cannot have people simply wipe the shelves clean of goods because it means honest customers end up paying more for their weekly shop. Thieves get their goods for free while the rest of us pay for their theft."

Amid deepening public fury at the size and scale of wanton stealing, Norfolk is one of best-performing police forces for catching and prosecuting shoplifters after making tackling the crime a priority.

It has a charging rate six times that of the Met Police.

Chief Constable Paul Sanford said: "I believe we can restore public confidence in policing by focusing on the things the public expect us to get right - keeping their communities and high streets safe and bringing offenders to justice.

"Crime is increasingly complex to investigate, the criminal justice system is experiencing significant challenges, and there's sustained scrutiny on standards and culture within policing. In recent years we have witnessed some truly atrocious cases which have caused untold damage to trust and confidence in policing. A higher level of scrutiny is something I welcome, and I don't believe there is a chief constable in the country that doesn't.

"However, the relentless scrutiny comes at a cost to the thousands of officers across the country who go into work every day to target criminals, take dangerous people off our streets, protect the public and serve our communities. The appalling actions of a minority mask the brave and heroic acts carried out by officers each day."

Theft from the person offences also remain at record levels, with 151,220 recorded by forces in the year to March, up 15% from 131,584 in the previous 12 months.

The number of recorded knife crime offences stood at 53,047 in 2024/25, down 1% from 53,685 in 2023/24 and 4% below the pre-pandemic figure of 55,170 in 2019/20.

Police forces recorded 6.6 million crimes in England and Wales in 2024/25, down slightly by 1% from 6.7 million in 2023/24.
The total is up from 6.1 million in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20, and from 4.2 million a decade earlier in 2014/15.

This is likely to reflect "changes in police activity and recording practices" as well as genuine changes in trends in crimes reported to and recorded by forces, meaning the figures do "not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime", the Office for National Statistics said.

Separate figures from the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales suggest people aged 16 and over experienced 9.4 million incidents of crime in the year to March, up from 8.8 million in the previous 12 months.

The rise is mainly due to a 31% rise in fraud, which accounts for 4.2 million incidents and is the highest estimate for this type of crime since fraud was first measured in the survey in 2016/17.

The overall total of 9.4 million incidents in 2024/25 is 16% lower than the total of 11.2 million for 2016/17, however.

The survey covers a range of personal and household victim-based crime, including theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse and violence with or without injury, but does not include sexual offences, stalking, harassment and domestic abuse, which are presented separately.

Experiences of theft, criminal damage and violence with or without injury, as measured by the ONS survey, have been on a broad downward trend since the mid-1990s.