Shoplifting has risen to its highest level in 20 years in England and Wales with retail crime now adding at least 6p to every store transaction.

A record high of 50 offences are recorded by police every hour across both UK nations, from 342,428, in the year to March 2023, to 443,995, in the 12 months to March this year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Shoplifting levels had already reached a 20-year high earlier this year, with the latest figures showing the number of offences recorded has risen even higher.

The annual crime survey of England and Wales showed a leap in computer misuse, driven by a 42% rise in “unauthorised access to personal information” alongside a 10% fall in fraud, in part because of reductions in bank and credit account fraud. 

Professor Emmeline Taylor, a criminologist at City University, London, and an expert in acquisitive crime, told The Financial Times that the recorded shoplifting figures were a “drop in the ocean” compared with the rates reported by retailers.

The British Retail Consortium found in its most recent report published in February that customer theft had doubled to 16.7 million incidents in 2023, up from 8 million in 2022, across the UK. 

It also recorded a huge surge in violence and abuse directed at retailers, at 1,300 incidents a day, up from 867 in 2022. Less than 3% of shoplifting offences were reported to police, Taylor said. 

This was either because shopkeepers did not have sufficient evidence, because they had lost confidence in the police, or they feared reprisal, she added.

The data comes after leading retailers raised concerns about the rising cost of theft, while the new Labour government has vowed to tackle low-level shoplifting and make assaulting a shop worker a specific criminal offence.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said shoplifting had “hit our local businesses and hurting communities in our towns and cities.”