Executive chairman of Iceland Richard Walker has said he would “happily” trial legal and proportionate facial recognition to address growing retail crime.

Following a House of Lords inquiry which found that 17 million shoplifting incidents take place in the UK every year, in a LinkedIn post the Iceland boss warned that security guards are “very limited” in their ability to act against “brazen, professional criminals” who he said are are operating without fear of consequence.

Walker, who has worked at Iceland for more than six years, called for enhanced legal powers that would allow security staff to search and "safely detain offenders".

“And as I’ve been saying for a while now, we need confirmation from the Information Commissioner's Office that we should be able to share images of perpetrators on social media groups,” continued the chairman. “The safety of my colleagues is more important than the data protection rights of known offenders.”

He also described pictures and details of serious incidents from the inquiry that he receives every week as "really upsetting".

Earlier this month, a Lords inquiry said that shoplifting is an underreported crime that has reached “unacceptable” levels, with devastating impacts on the retail sector and wider economy.

During the inquiry, the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee heard that very few of the millions of shoplifting cases lead to an arrest, with retail crime costing the sector almost £2 billion last year.

In a letter to the minister for policing, crime and fire prevention, dame Diana Johnson, the Committee said the nature of the offence has evolved from individualised offending to “relentless”, large-scale, organised operations which are accompanied by unprecedented levels of violence.

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