Senior leaders from the Metropolitan (Met) Police and major High Street retailers, including Boots, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Superdrug and Tesco, have agreed an action plan to help tackle retail crime in the capital.

The roundtable, which took place at New Scotland Yard yesterday and was also hosted in partnership with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the Retail Trust, aimed to agree priorities to reduce crime and deliver stronger outcomes for High Streets.

From the discussions, the action plan will focus on improving evidence sharing and greater collaboration through physical police presence and retail technology to reduce crime.

The 20 retail organisations put forward plans to ensure high quality evidence, including CCTV and body-worn camera footage, is preserved and shared, as well as committing to streamlined processes, such as providing police with a single point of contact to reduce delays. They will also offer retail colleagues the necessary time to support the criminal justice process.

Meanwhile the police will focus on prioritising attendance to violent retail incidents and those where the offender is detained, as well as improving updates to retailers on the progress and outcomes of crimes and doubling down on repeat offenders and organised crime groups.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the BRC, said the action plan would “boost collaboration between retailers and the Metropolitan Police: working together and sharing intelligence is essential to tackling the scourge of retail crime.”

“Theft already costs shops hundreds of millions of pounds every year – money that would be better spent investing in lower prices and improving the customer experience.”

“The Crime and Policing Act offers police new powers to clamp down on criminals and it is essential that offenders are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Better intelligence sharing, improving reporting and robust enforcement are critical to turning the tide on retail crime,” she added.

The Met said it had made +50% more arrests during 2025-6, and the positive outcome rate for retail crime (a charge or caution) rose by +123% to 5,996. It also said that, by putting more officers into neighbourhoods, shoplifting offences had been cut by nearly 4%. 

“Retail workers need to know that every incident of theft, violence or abuse will be treated with urgency and that they will never be left to deal with the consequences alone,” said Retail Trust’s Chief Exec, Chris Brook-Carter.

“We understand that shoplifting has a corrosive impact on businesses, retail workers and communities,” Matt Twist, Assistant Commissioner for Frontline Policing at the Met, added. “That’s why we remain committed to engaging with the retail sector.

“Sharing evidence is crucial in building strong cases and stopping offenders, and we will continue to work with business to ensure incidents are reported to bring offenders to justice.”

Earlier this week, Sainsbury’s became the latest retailer to turn to new technology to stem shoplifting, announcing it would extend its facial recognition use with Facewatch across 150 store ahead of Christmas.