Update to the Retail Crime Advisory Board
Update from: Alex Goss
ACC Local Policing & Criminal Justice/NPCC Lead for Retail Crime
As the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Retail Crime, I want to reflect on our collective progress throughout 2025 and outline priorities for the year ahead. Building on the momentum created by the Retail Crime Action Plan (RCAP) and Pegasus in 2024, the past 12 months have delivered significant and measurable improvements across policing and our wider partnership.
Through OPAL, we have seen a 73% reduction in offending across the year for operations we adopted, with reductions recorded across all police forces. Notably, 31 forces achieved between 75% and 100% reductions, and we achieved full disruption of organised offending groups responsible for £2.5 million in losses. These results show the impact of focused, intelligence‑led activity and the value of consistent partnership working. I strongly encourage all partners to continue feeding in their data, and reviewing its quality, as we prepare for the launch of the Fusion Cell.
Our SaBA activity also grew substantially. In 2025, 35 forces submitted returns, supporting 1,485 SaBA events involving 4,407 officers and staff. Nationally, this resulted in 7,050 businesses engaged, 1,213 arrests, 231 searches, and 733 charges or positive outcomes. This scale of mobilisation reflects policing’s commitment to tackling retail crime in a visible, coordinated way.
Alongside operational delivery, we have continued to strengthen our infrastructure. The development of the knowledge bank is enabling the sharing of effective practice, and Home Office funding has supported the growth of both the National Business Crime Centre and Opal ORC teams. Importantly, 2025 also marked the launch of the Tackling Retail Crime Together (TRCT) strategy, cementing shared commitments across policing, retailers, the security industry and the Home Office. TRCT represents a fundamental shift in how we work together, providing a clear framework for partnership action. But a strategy only has value when it translates into delivery, and 2026 must be the year we turn this vision into reality.
A central priority for the coming year is bringing the Fusion Cell fully online, ensuring every retailer, regardless of size, can share intelligence directly with policing. This will enable more precise targeting of Organised Retail Crime and high‑harm locations.
Through the Retail Crime Advisory Group (RCAG), I intend to strengthen communication, collaboration, and constructive challenge across the partnership. To support this, we will introduce quarterly virtual meetings to complement the in‑person sessions that have been instrumental in shaping TRCT.
While our progress is clear, we continue to face important challenges. National data shows that around half of shoplifting offences in the year ending March 2025 were closed with no suspect identified (55.3%). Although charge rates for shoplifting (18.5%) remain higher than for other theft offences, evidential difficulties still account for 16.8% of outcomes. The median time to assign an outcome has also increased from 7 to 10 days. These figures underline the importance of strengthening our end‑to‑end response.
This remains a critical barrier to achieving criminal justice outcomes. I would welcome your views on how we can collectively improve the speed and quality of evidence provision.
Thank you for your continued commitment and the energy you bring to this shared endeavour. The progress we have made is the result of collective effort and sustaining this momentum will be essential as we move through 2026.
