The government has announced plans to double the maximum closure time for illegal mini-marts, barbers and vape shops to 12 months, following a BBC investigation that exposed organised crime on British high streets.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made the announcement after joining police and Trading Standards officers on raids in Handsworth, Birmingham, last week – a high street bordering her own constituency. At one shop on Soho Road, officers found illegal cigarettes and snuff. A shopworker was arrested after a makeshift weapon – a plank with a nail – was found under the counter.
“Government doubles shop closure limit to 12 months after BBC investigation into organised crime on high streets.”
The shopworker, who said he was a student from Afghanistan, admitted that selling illegal cigarettes was wrong. When asked why he was doing it, he replied: “Perhaps you should ask the manager, he’s the owner.” The owner was not present, he said.
The BBC’s nine-month investigation uncovered drug gangs, child sexual exploitation, money laundering and immigration crime linked to shops selling illegal cigarettes, vapes and drugs. Under current rules in England and Wales, authorities can close a shop for only three months, with an option to extend to six using anti-social behaviour legislation. The new powers will allow closure for up to 12 months.
Mahmood praised the BBC’s reporting, saying people felt high streets were being taken over by “organised crime [and] immigration criminality”. The government was “not prepared to tolerate it”, she said. This criminality “makes people lose faith, not just in their local area but in democracy, in what our country is, and we can’t let that happen”, she added.
The Home Office says the extended closures will give investigators more time to gather evidence, pursue prosecutions and identify business owners, while preventing rogue operators from simply reopening and resuming illegal activity.
Trading Standards officers have repeatedly told the BBC they lack the necessary powers to tackle the problem. John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), said: “Closure orders are a key enforcement tool… for tackling ‘dodgy shops’.” There is “almost universal support” from his profession for the new measures, he added.
Other Trading Standards officers said it would become less financially viable for unscrupulous business owners to sit out closure orders, and would force landlords to pay more attention to who they are renting to.