It is the first time 300,000 shoplifting investigations have been closed before a suspect has been identified. It will reignite calls for officers to attend every retail theft, as called for by the Daily Express’s Stop the Shoplifters crusade.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The rise in serious crimes like rape, sexual offences, shoplifting and robberies – as well as a fall in police numbers – prove Labour are too weak to restore public order and have no plan to cut crime. In a single year, Labour have turned Britain into a soft touch for criminals and a nightmare for victims.
“Keir Starmer does not have the backbone to take the difficult decisions Britain needs. Now he’s paralysed, too weak to face down his Left-wing backbenchers and activists who think criminals are victims and victims are statistics.”
Lucy Whing, crime policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retail theft is a major issue for retailers, costing over £2.2billion a year.
“While ONS figures do not reveal the true scale of the issue, as it only tracks reported incidents, it chimes with our own statistics, which show shoplifting soaring in recent years.
“The causes are manifold, but the rise in organised crime is a particular concern, with gangs systematically hitting stores one after another, all over the country.
“Theft is also a major trigger for violence and abuse against staff. Incidents of violence and abuse have risen to over 2,000 per day.
“These incidents are not restricted to those working in stores – new figures from Usdaw revealed that more than three quarters of delivery drivers have been a victim of abuse, and over one in 10 have been assaulted over the last 12 months.”
Separate figures, published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday, revealed another alarming rise in sexual offences, with 211,225 cases opened in the year to June, up from 193,684.
More than a third of these were rape allegations, which are up 6% on last year, with 72,804 crimes reported.
The Tories warned the increase in rape and sexual assault offences, as well as stalking and harassment, “speak to a country where intimidation, coercion, and violence against women are once again rising”.
The ONS said the rise in sexual offences recorded by police was partly down to changes introduced by the Online Safety Act, which intended to clamp down on revenge porn.
Theft from the person rose 5% to 145,860, and robberies targeting businesses rocketed by 55% to 18,534, ONS figures show.
Police also recorded 310,173 harassment offences and 137,859 stalking offences in the year to June.
And the Tories warned that Labour’s sentencing plans – which will see 43,000 criminals avoid jail altogether, including thousands of shoplifters – will lead to things getting much worse.
Ms Jones said: “I applaud the Express’s Stop the Shoplifters campaign, and I know it’s an issue that chimes with their readers who are day in and day out seeing brazen thieves
“The decade before we took office saw neighbourhood police patrols slashed into almost non-existence.
“Although today’s figures once again show a bleak picture on many fronts, charge volumes have gone up by 25% and almost one in five
“But it shows that our approach of restoring neighbourhood policing will work – by getting more officers out in their