A major conference will be held in Liverpool this week (Tuesday 10th June) exploring how to make cities safer. The Business Crime Prevention Partnership, organised by Liverpool BID Safety Partnership, will bring together voices from across the UK for the first time, alongside leading industry experts, to discuss the challenges of business crime and to examine ways to tackle it. 

Key stakeholders from city centres across the UK will convene at the Hilton to discuss the impact of crime in city centres. The conference comes as a national partnership representing over 5,000 businesses in the UK warns that urgent reform is needed to protect the UK’s high streets from crime. High Streets UK, of which Liverpool BID is a founding member, says government ambition on tackling city centre crime will fall short without ringfenced policing around flagship high streets, strengthening provision around criminal behaviour orders and a coordinated multi agency approach nationwide to tackle business crime and help those affected to report it. 

Liverpool is one of 250 Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BRCP) in the UK. A model that is seen as best practice in the country, it sees partners working together in a city to tackle business crime and to work and lobby together to affect change. According to the British Retail Consortium’s annual crime survey, retailers have spent a record £1.8bn on crime prevention in one year (2024), up from £1.2bn the previous year. Across the UK there were just over 2,000 incidents of violence or abuse a day in stories across the country, up more than a third on the year before. 

At the conference in Liverpool, Criminologist Professor Martin Gill CSyp FSyl and Director of Perpetuity Research who is one of the leading researchers into security and related issues will be speaking. Confirmed speakers so far include Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emil Spurrell, Superintendent Patrick Holdaway MBA MSyl, from the National Business Crime Centre, Paul Evans CEO Carlisle Support Services, Superintendent Charlotte Irlam, Business Crime lead Merseyside Police, Mark Morgan, Business manager for Licensing Security and Vulnerability Initiative with more speakers to be announced. 

The conference will focus on key areas including understanding the context of business crime, the trends and the impact, cybersecurity and national threats. It will examine potential policy areas for reform and the role of partnerships within cities to tackle crime and lead efforts to reduce it. It will discuss what resources are needed, from policing to training and the practical solutions for working with local businesses. 

Shaun Holland is Director of Operations at Liverpool BID Company 

“I am delighted that so many partners from across the country have shown an interest and recognised the importance of this issue. Liverpool is leading the way in raising the profile of an issue that impacts every business and every high street.

Business crime costs in excess of two billion each year and it is vital we work together alongside our partners to tackle it. Liverpool is one of the safest cities in the country, however we are not complacent and this is recognised through our work in Partnership with the statutory and voluntary sectors and is recognised by over twenty years of continuous accreditation with Purple Flag status. 

This conference will bring different stakeholders together to create a plan and a strategy to reduce business crime. It’s not something business should have to deal with alone”.

In Liverpool, the BID Safety Partnership includes two full time Merseyside Police officers who provide BID Levy Payers with a direct response to non-emergency enquiries about safety, crime prevention including cyber-crime, anti-social behaviour and security issues seven days a week; The DISC Intelligence Sharing Platform allows intelligence sharing across businesses in the city for both daytime and night-time economy businesses; Intelligence Sharing Briefings, which discuss safety issues across the BID; City Watch officers are funded by the BID to monitor the Radio Link network on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays during retail hours, Friday and Saturday evenings/nights; The BID Radio Link Network has over 180 active digital radios operated by businesses themselves to provide reassurance and intelligence sharing, operating 24 hours a day. 

Find out more on the BID Safety Partnership