Shoplifting crimes in north Wales reached a record high in the past year, new figures show.

Major retailers have raised concerns about the rising cost of theft, while the Government has vowed to make assaulting a shopworker a specific criminal offence.

Home Office figures show there were 4,943 shoplifting crimes recorded by North Wales Police in the year to March – 18 per cent up from 4,188 the year before, and the highest figure since records began in 2003.

The Government has unveiled plans to amend the Crime and Policing Bill, adding legislation to address retail crime by creating a new specific offence of assaulting a shopworker and introducing stronger measures to "tackle low-level shoplifting".

Amendments also include reversing the previous £200 theft threshold, which allows anyone stealing goods costing less than that to plead guilty by post.

The British Independent Retailers Association expressed support for these initiatives saying: "For too long, our members have faced increased incidents of theft, greater volumes of stolen products, and rising abuse towards business owners and staff."

Commenting on the national trends, ONS spokeswoman Meghan Elkin said: "There has been no change across many crime types in the last year. However, we have seen falls in fraud, while there have been increases in computer misuse and some forms of theft, such as shoplifting and theft from the person.

"Notably, shoplifting has continued to see increases and remains at its highest level in 20 years.

"In addition, robbery, offences involving knives or sharp instruments, and offences involving firearms have also increased over the last year while remaining below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels."

The number of robberies recorded in England and Wales rose to 81,019, up 8 per cent from 75,012 in the previous 12 months.

Among the robberies, there was a 13 per cent increase in those involving a knife or sharp instrument, with 21,226 recorded by forces in 2023-24.

The national figures exclude Greater Manchester due to an IT issue in processing knife crime data.

In North Wales, there were 132 robberies recorded, with 43 involving a knife or sharp instrument.