Home Office minister agrees to meeting to discuss violence against retail workers

Junior minister, Victoria Atkins, has agreed to attend a meeting to discuss violence against retailers and shopworkers.

The meeting announcement followed amendments tabled to the Offence Weapons Bill by David Hanson MP. The proposed amendments included tougher sanctions for attacks on shopworkers who are “intentionally obstructed” in exercising their duties. This would include enforcement of age restrictions on products such as alcohol and tabaco.

Victoria Atkins, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, commented that “shopworkers [should] feel protected, as well as being protected, by the law”. She then proceeded to invite key players in the “retail arena” to the table to discuss the issues raised in further detail.

Following the meeting offer, David Hanson MP agreed to withdraw the amendment “on the understanding that an amendment to the Bill can be brought to the House of Lords.”

David added that he “hope[s to make] progress on this key issue that impacts on the lives of so many retail staff, this issue is not going away.”

The ammendements have been supported by trade bodies like ACS and BRC, the shopworkers union Usdaw, the Co-op party and the Co-op Group.

James Lowman, chief executive of ACS commented that “the government relies on retailers and store colleagues to uphold the law, so we want back up from police and the criminal justice system to send a clear message that violence and verbal abuse is not acceptable and will be acted on.”

Paddy Lillis, general secretary of Usdaw stated that “we need a better balance in the law. The existing offence of common assault is not enough, because it is rarely used and difficult to prove in cases of verbal abuse and threats.”

#DontDrinkandDrown

Brighton & Hove is the 7th highest location in the nation for drownings involving intoxication.

Don’t drink and drown is a national campaign that warns drinkers to steer clear of walking by or entering water when under the influence of alcohol.

Research indicates that around a quarter of all adult drowning victims have alcohol in their bloodstream.

The campaign was launched following a string of tragic student drownings.

The campaign aims to influence people to make small changes in their behaviour and ultimately to cut down the number of drink related drownings.

The stakeholder in the night-time economy can play a big role in helping to prevent these deaths by showing a short hard hitting promotional film and key messages on screens, putting up posters and alerting services like the Resolve Beach Patrol if you see or hear of people going into or near the sea late at night.

The Royal Life Saving Society will be out and about promoting the campign on Friday 7 December. If you would like any promotional materials for your venue please get in touch. 

To read more about the campaign and how you can help please visit the RLSS.

Brighton and Hove police hit the road

Police officers from Brighton and Hove are hitting the streets with a series of prevention roadshows in a first for Sussex Police.

Police will be visiting locations across the city to give members the opportunity to meet their local prevention teams and ask any questions they have around local policing.

The roadshow will be at George Street, Hove on Thursday (6 December), outside Churchill Square on Western Road, on Friday (7 December), New Road, Brighton on Saturday (8 December), and Brighton Marina on Sunday (9 December). Each of the shows will begin at 10am.

Alongside meeting the public, prevention officers will be giving their advice on staying safe this festive season and talking about drug issues, focusing on the problem of county lines supply, knife crime and burglary.

Chief Inspector Rachel Swinney said: “Our prevention officers, who are crucial to tackling local issues, have had a fantastic success in reducing crime at The Level, following a number of community engagement activities.

“Public support in local policing is vital to building stronger communities. Please come and say hello and find out what we are doing locally for you and how we are working to keep the city safe.”

Police will be posting about the roadshows on their social media channels.

Guidance for rate relief in Budget published

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Budget in October that businesses with a rateable value of under £51K will recieve a one-third discount on their rates bills. Further guidance has now been published and this will affect many of our members.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has published further details and stated that the discount will be available to eligible businesses for periods of 2019/20 and 2020/21.

The guidance recognises the inclusion of petrol forecourts and post offices as falling within the definition of businesses that are "wholly or mainly being used as shops, restaurants, cafes and drinking establishments" although the exact eligibility of the criteria will be down to local authorities.

It is hoped that this discount will help ease the financial burdens of businesses in the coming years.

The full details can be found here.

Did Sussex Police ACC criticise the Chief Constable?

At a meeting of the Sussex Police & Crime Panel, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry appeared to criticise Giles York in an unfavourable comparison with his counterpart in the neighbouring Hampshire Force.

The Sussex Panel was dissecting the reasons why Hampshire has a better record of arrests than Sussex when ACC Barry suggested it was because “they have a better Chief Constable”. He later tried to explain that he meant Hampshire’s new Chief Constable was better than her predecessor and he had not been referring to Giles York. Hampshire’s new Chief Constable - Olivia Pinkney - has been in place since April 2016.

Armed robbery near Hove bus garage

Police are hunting for three people connected to a robbery in Fonthill Road in Hove on Monday afternoon (19 November).

One 25 year old man has been arrested on suspicion of robbery after a Loomis security van was robbed at 13.20. Four robbers on the back of two scooters stole two boxes of cash from a member of security staff.

The security officer was threatened with an axe. The suspects left on two white Lambretta-type scooters, in the direction of Old Shoreham Road.

Detective Inspector Ian Still said: "We believe these two scooters were stolen during the previous two days. One of them was stolen at 12.40 on Monday from Clifton Street before being used in the robbery less than an hour later.

"We are very keen to hear from anyone who might have seen these two distinctive Lambretta-style white scooters being driven around, probably together, between 12.40 and 16:00, when they were found abandoned in Clermont Terrace, Brighton.

Anyone who can help is asked to contact police online quoting serial 572 of 19/11.

TV programme accused of glorifying knife crime

ITV has been blasted by John Apter, Chair o the Police Federation, for its links with an American TV programme available on the History Channel, which has been dubbed ‘Bake Off with Blades’. Forged in Fire is a programme during which blacksmiths compete to create knives, axes and swords which are then tested by slashing, hacking and slicing dummies complete with fake blood.

Ex military personnel from the American armed forces act as judges to gauge the effectiveness of the blades when they cut through solid bone or decapitate mannequins. 

The programme is filmed in New York by a production company that is part owned by Britain’s ITV. John Apter has called for ITV to review its decision to produce this programme in the light of the epidemic of knife crime in the UK.

UK police risk loss of access to key European database

The Schengen Information System II [SIS II] was accessed by UK police forces 539 million times in 2017. It is a database that monitors the movements of sex offenders and suspected terrorists but a ‘no-deal’ Brexit could see the UK denied access to the facility if we become a ‘third country’ outside of the EU.

The SIS enables law enforcement agencies in member states to enter and consult alerts on certain categories of wanted or missing persons and suspicious objects. A SIS alert not only contains information about a particular person or object but also clear instructions on what to do when the person or object has been found.

As the access figures suggest, the database is used on a daily basis by UK law enforcement agencies for day-to-day operational policing.

As a precaution the Home Office has sanctioned £2.4m of expenditure to create a ‘no-deal safety net’ to compensate for losing this and other EU tools to fight crime. The figure includes £250,000 on the lease of an office building because the Metropolitan Police Service does not have the capacity to house the new department working on the safety net.