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The provisions on "instructing or hindering" shop workers are new, certainly - but in legal terms, most of this Bill is just cosmetic. Assaulting retail workers is already a criminal offence. Being threatening or abusive to retail workers is already a statutory offence. https://twitter.com/ScotParl/status/1351598933101993986
Should Holyrood really be spending its time endlessly re-criminalising behaviour which is already an offence under other rules and statutes in more and more granular detail, sector-by-sector?
Although billed as "strengthening" the protection of retail workers," the maximum punishment for assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker are all actually *lower* for the new offence than for existing crimes, as this new crime is prosecutable summary-only.
By way of explanation: common law assault and s.38 threatening or abusive behaviour can all be prosecuted on indictment - enhancing the maximum from 12 months to up to 5 years in the sheriff court, and beyond in the High Court.
What does this mean in practice? Particularly nasty incidents experienced by retail workers in the course of their duties will almost certainly be prosecuted under the old law, and not this new Bill. This seems like a curious outcome, given Parliament's policy intentions here.
