FSB launches Every Crime Every Time Campaign

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), in partnership with the Coalition Against Crime, today launches a major new national campaign to increase reporting of crime against businesses. Thousands of businesses are being encouraged to keep a record of every crime they are a victim of, no matter how small, and to report it to the police.

The Every Crime Every Time Campaign aims to highlight the extent of crime against small businesses and the fact that it is grossly under-reported. Despite the fact that a fifth of all crime in the UK is committed against business, only one in eight incidents is reported, often because small business owners feel that crime committed against them is low down on the list of police priorities.

The FSB has long been calling for police forces’ record on tackling crime against business to be included in the assessment of their performance. The Every Crime Every Time Campaign will increase the pressure in this area and raise greater awareness of the damage that crime against business does to local communities.

David Croucher-Jones, FSB Home Affairs Chairman, said:

“It is mystifying that such a large proportion of crime in this country can go almost unnoticed.

“The Every Crime Every Time Campaign is an effort to make the voices of small business owners heard about the crime they are victims of and to get police forces and the Government to listen.

“Crime against business is often thought to be victimless. It’s not. The victims are the communities that small businesses sustain and small business owners themselves are facing a climate of constant intimidation and violence”

Anne Tate, Chief Executive of the Coalition Against Crime, said:

“Crime impacts upon a business in a number of ways, including the inability to meet customer deadlines, damaging profitability, wasting management time and affecting staff morale, to name but a few.

“We are looking for more information about the scale, nature and impact of crime upon businesses, so we can formulate a response to it. Small businesses can help by taking part in this campaign, which will run for one year.

“By reporting every incident of crime, anti-social behaviour or verbal and physical abuse against staff, small business owners can help us to put more pressure on police forces to take crime against business seriously.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. More information about the Every Crime Every Time Campaign is available at: www.fsb.org.uk/ecet.

2. The FSB’s report, Crime Against Business – the Forgotten Fifth can be found here: www.fsb.org.uk/documentstore/filedetails.asp?ID=374.

3. The FSB is Britain’s biggest business organisation with over 210,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is available at www.fsb.org.uk.

4. The Every Crime, Every Time Campaign was first run by the Scottish Local Retailer magazine, which has given us permission to extend the campaign to England and Wales. They will be carrying out a re-launch to strengthen the impact of the campaign across the UK.

Contacts:

Stephen Alambritis: 020 7592 8112 / 07788 422155

Simon Briault: 020 7592 8128 / 07917 628998

Belinda Webb: 020 7592 8121 / 07825 125 695

For regional FSB contacts please go to www.fsb.org.uk

For interviews with the Coalition Against Crime spokesman, please contact Mrs Anne Tate, Chief Executive, on 01661 868424 or 07736 875665 or by email to anne@ncac.org.uk

For interviews with the Editor of the Scottish Local Retailer, please contact Anthony Begley on 0141 22 25 380 / 0788 923 177 or by email to abegley@55north.com