The Current Situation

Business Crime

The Current Situation

Crime is a cause of concern for many businesses. We do not have a full picture of the extent to which crime affects business as in most instances crime reports do not differentiate between whether the victim was an individual or a business. The only separately reported crime against business is theft from shops. In the year ending 31 March 2003, there were 309,619 reported thefts from shops - a 0.9% increase on the previous 12 months.

However the 2001 British Chambers of Commerce survey estimated the cost of crime to business at £19bn per year, whilst the British Retail Consortium 2002 crime survey estimated the annual cost of retail crime at £2.2bn.

The Government is very concerned about business related crime. The Home Office Business Crime Team was established earlier this year to develop a strategy for working more closely with business to reduce crime. Following a public consultation exercise at the beginning of 2003, and the responses to that consultation, a strategy focusing on 6 key areas is being developed:-

Obtaining regular and accurate information on the levels and types of business crime;
Developing a central advice/support service for businesses;
Improving links between business and existing partnerships;
Implementing measures to reduce retail crime;
Implementing measures to reduce fraud; and
Raising business awareness of its capacity and responsibility to reduce crime.

As part of the strategy each of the Government Offices now has a Business Crime Reduction Adviser (BCRA) in post. Based locally the BCRAs will be able to develop a true understanding of the crime problems and issues affecting businesses within their region and ensure that crime reduction initiatives focus on particular local requirements.

The Home Office has announced the formation of a new national action group to tackle business related crime. The "Action Against Business Crime Group" is a joint venture between the Home Office and the British Retail Consortium to boost the work of local business crime partnerships. The Home Office has granted £900,000 to fund the action group over the next 2 years.

The £15million Small Retailers in Deprived Areas project will have helped 12,500 small businesses to improve their security by the end of March 2004.

We are encouraging financial and retail sectors to work towards early implementation of more secure systems to combat fraud - including 'Chip and PIN', (the introduction of microchips into payment cards and the use of PIN codes in place of signatures).

A two year pilot of a unique police unit created by the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) and the Home Office was launched on Monday 29 April 2002. The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit aims to fight the organised crime syndicates behind steep rises in UK plastic card fraud losses.

We are working with major businesses such as ASDA, Argos, Woolworths, Dell and EMI in developing the Chipping of Goods initiative. We have invested £5.5m in demonstrator projects to show how property crime can be reduced throughout the retail supply chain using electronic tagging.

Further Information

Business Crime

Business Crime Consultation Document
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/business27.htm

Report of the responses to the Business Crime Consultation Exercise
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/business28.htm

British Chambers of Commerce
http://www.chamberonline.co.uk