Tackling Business Crime in Staffordshire
March 11, 2021
A new joint strategy has been launched by the Staffordshire Commissioner’s Office, Staffordshire Police and the Local Enterprise Partnership to simplify the landscape of support available for business crime victims in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Networks of organisations exist at local, regional, and national levels to respond to crimes against businesses, but due to the specialist nature of these crimes, processes have historically been complicated and confusing for victims to follow.
The new strategy is designed to translate this complexity into a clear, coherent offer for local businesses, by increasing communication and accessibility through a joined-up partnership approach to tackling business crime in the region.
It will drive an action plan, led by the Deputy Staffordshire Commissioner, which will coordinate efforts across the range of local partners delivering services to our business communities, including Staffordshire Police, the Chambers of Commerce, Partnerships Against Business Crime in Staffordshire (PABCIS) and the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, holding partners to account for how these services are delivered.
Deputy Staffordshire Commissioner Sue Arnold, herself a business owner, has long championed the needs of the business community as a vital part of the region’s prosperity.
The strategy is backed by extensive research by Staffordshire University, commissioned by the SCO last September, into the experiences of a wide range of small business owners. It revealed that these businesses often felt unheard, under-recognised and under-supported in discussions about the impact of business crime, which tended to focus on larger retailers and the night-time economy.
Tackling business crime is an important part of the Commissioner’s Safer, Fairer United Communities strategy.
The Staffordshire Commissioners Office has commissioned Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce to deliver specialist support to businesses impacted by crime. Business Crime Advisors are trained to deliver tailored support packages to businesses following a crime.
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