Policy Hub
On 31 October 2007, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) published its 14th annual survey (BRC retail crime survey 2006/07: key messages) which finds that, for UK retailing, losses from detected customer theft rose 8.5 per cent from £189 million to £205 million in a year. The increased cost of detected thefts indicates a combination of more thefts, higher value thefts and retailers' increased investment in security measures.
Compared with last year, the BRC survey shows that incidents of physical violence rose 50 per cent, while threats of violence more than doubled and the number or incidents per employee rose by a third.
Based on an electronic survey, the BRC 2007 Retail Crime Survey drew responses from retail companies trading in a full range of retail sectors through 10,054 outlets in the UK, with a turnover of almost £110 billion, representing 43 per cent of total UK retail sales.
BRC retail crime survey 2006/07: key messages