The Justice and Home Affairs Committee is conducting a short inquiry on tackling shoplifting.

The issue of shoplifting has recently been the subject of considerable attention in the media. In October 2023, the Government launched the Retail Crime Action Plan which aims to “tackle the rise in shoplifting, catch more offenders and keep retail workers safe”. It includes a new business and policing partnership called Pegasus which seeks to build intelligence about the relationship between shoplifting and organised crime gangs.

The inquiry will focus on responses to shoplifting, particularly the Pegasus initiative.

The witnesses will be  Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, Acquisitive Crime Lead at National Police Chiefs' Council; Katy Bourne OBE, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner at Association of Police and Crime Commissioners; Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Taylor, Head of Opal at National Police Chiefs' Council

Possible topics to be covered include:

• What are the challenges for the police in responding to shoplifting?

• What is the background to the Retail Crime Action Plan and how the Pegasus Project sits within it.

• How were the partners to Pegasus chosen and persuaded to contribute funding and are there any plans to broaden out the partnership initiative to include smaller retailers?

• What are the consequences for retailers not in the partnership?

• What is the role of private companies in providing secretariat support to Pegasus?

• How are the police building up databases about the relationship between organised crime and shoplifting?

• What is the role of retrospective facial recognition technology?