More than 6,000 offences were reported over the year
Richard Ault Senior Data Journalist/ Investigative Reporter and Pete Gavan Senior Editor
05:43, 13 May 2026Updated 09:37, 13 May 2026
Bristol had among the highest number of shoplifting offences reported
Bristol has been named as one of the worst places in the country for shoplifting offences.
Police data shows that retail theft has soared by 99% since the nation came out of lockdown and plunged into a cost-of-living crisis.
Forces recorded more than 315,000 shoplifting crimes in 2022, but that figure jumped by more than 100,000 offences the following year, and by almost 90,000 offences again in 2024.
Last year, there were just under 510,000 crimes of shoplifting recorded by police in England and Wales, which was a slight 1% fall from the previous year – the first time offending has fallen since the pandemic.
However, that was still 99% higher than in 2022, the first full year after lockdown, when remaining Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, and 39% higher than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
The highest numbers of shoplifting offences were recorded by police in Birmingham (12,592), Leeds (10,264), Westminster (7,441), Sheffield (6,309), and Bristol (6,201).
You can use our map to check the shoplifting crime rates in your area and compare them to the rest of the country.
However, crime rates published by the Home Office reveal that many smaller areas have an even bigger problem with shoplifting.
Crime rates are calculated by dividing the number of offences by the population, and are generally considered the fairest way to compare crime across areas of wildly different sizes.
They show traders in the seaside town of Eastbourne suffer most as a result of shoplifters.
Eastbourne has the highest crime rate of 24 shoplifting offences for every 1,000 people who live in the resort town. That’s the highest crime rate among more than 300 council areas in England and Wales, except for Westminster, where extremely high numbers of tourists and a low resident population skew the results.
After Eastbourne, the areas with the highest crime rates and the biggest issues with shoplifters are Lincoln (23 crimes per 1,000 residents), Hartlepool (23), Kensington and Chelsea (22), Camden (18), and Norwich (18).
Shoplifting was first described as an “epidemic” in 2023 by Dame Sharon White, the chair of John Lewis Partnership, and since then, crime—and the cost to retailers—has spiralled.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said retailers footed an “eye-watering” £4.2 billion bill from crime in 2024, including £2.2bn lost to shoplifting, and £1.8bn spent on crime prevention measures.
Meanwhile, analysis from the Lb-Debs shows that just one in five shoplifting offences (20%) resulted in a charge last year.
However, last month, the Crime and Policing Bill became law. The Bill has removed the £200 “low-value” threshold, meaning theft of goods below that value is no longer a summary-only offence dealt with by magistrates, which created a perception that many shoplifters were getting off lightly. The Bill has also created a new standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira (the British Independent Retailers Association), said: “We need to recognise that real progress has been made over the past 12 months.
“There has been a better response from police, more arrests, more community officers on the ground, and a much sharper focus on retail crime. That matters, and it should be acknowledged.
“However, the level of crime remains high and unacceptable. Half a million shoplifting offences in a single year is not a figure any of us should be satisfied with. We have to maintain focus and momentum, and we would urge every retailer to remain vigilant and to report every single incident. That reporting culture is what drives the data, and the data is what drives the political will to act.”