Assaulting a shop worker will be made a separate criminal offence in England and Wales as part of the government's clampdown on retail crime.
Rishi Sunak said shops must be free from the threat of crime or abuse.
"I have been concerned by the rise in retail crime which is why today we've announced a strong set of measures to clamp down on crime," he said.
Report by Kennedyl.
Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
