Other previously announced proposals in the bill include so-called respect orders, under which people who regularly engage in antisocial behaviour could be jailed for up to two years, and new police powers to seize off-road motorbikes and other vehicles being used in an antisocial way.
As well as the new offence of assaulting a shop worker, the bill will repeal an earlier law that said any shoplifting of items worth less than £200 would be automatically treated as a less serious crime.
This would particularly target phone theft, where someone’s “find my phone” function shows it is at a particular address, but would cover any stolen item that could be located using mobile signal, wifi, Bluetooth or tracking devices such as an AirTag, such as vehicles or farm machinery.
A Home Office statement announcing the bill said this change would allow police to “act swiftly in the ‘golden hour’ of investigations”, meaning more stolen property could be retrieved.
Other parts of the bill taken from the Conservatives’ abandoned version include the changes to protest laws, as well as expanding access to DVLA records for law enforcement, and a specific offence against making an explicit image of someone without a reasonable expectation of consent.
