Current status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 10 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the 15% increase in thefts from shops, as reported in the latest Recorded Crime in Scotland statistics, and what its position is on future funding for the Retail Crime Taskforce.
The Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling retail crime was reaffirmed in our Programme for Government and through the additional £3 million in the 2025-26 budget, to assist Police Scotland’s work on this.
This makes clear our strong support for Police Scotland’s robust approach in addressing this issue, and I can confirm that the Retail Crime Taskforce has been working hard in recent months to assist retailers and to catch those responsible.
We are working closely with SPA and Police Scotland to understand their 2026-27 budget requirements, but clearly there is a process to go through and decisions to be made before we can finalise the budget for 2026-27. This will be published on 13 January 2026.