Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the proportionality of arrests under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, particularly in cases involving low-level contact or where mental health or neurodivergence may be a factor.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the ethnicity of individuals convicted under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018; and what steps are being taken to monitor and address any disparities.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of convictions at criminal courts for an assault on an emergency worker by age and ethnicity in England and Wales. This data can be found in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. This data is part of a range of data produced by the Ministry of Justice which includes a broader review of ethnicity and the criminal justice system.

Data on those with a mental health condition or a neurodivergent profile is not collated centrally by the Ministry of Justice. Where an individual is convicted, sentencing guidelines stipulate that the court must consider issues of neurodiversity at sentencing, taking an individualistic approach, recognising that the levels of impairment caused by any condition will vary significantly between individuals.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 on individuals with mental health conditions or neurodivergent profiles.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of convictions at criminal courts for an assault on an emergency worker by age and ethnicity in England and Wales. This data can be found in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. This data is part of a range of data produced by the Ministry of Justice which includes a broader review of ethnicity and the criminal justice system.

Data on those with a mental health condition or a neurodivergent profile is not collated centrally by the Ministry of Justice. Where an individual is convicted, sentencing guidelines stipulate that the court must consider issues of neurodiversity at sentencing, taking an individualistic approach, recognising that the levels of impairment caused by any condition will vary significantly between individuals.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many individuals over the age of 18 have been convicted under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in each year since its introduction.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of convictions at criminal courts for an assault on an emergency worker by age and ethnicity in England and Wales. This data can be found in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. This data is part of a range of data produced by the Ministry of Justice which includes a broader review of ethnicity and the criminal justice system.

Data on those with a mental health condition or a neurodivergent profile is not collated centrally by the Ministry of Justice. Where an individual is convicted, sentencing guidelines stipulate that the court must consider issues of neurodiversity at sentencing, taking an individualistic approach, recognising that the levels of impairment caused by any condition will vary significantly between individuals.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals arrested under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 were also arrested for other offences at the same time in each year since that Act's commencement; and in how many of those cases the other offences were subsequently dropped.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals were arrested under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in each year since its introduction; and how many of those arrests resulted in no further action or were not charged.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals were arrested under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in the most recent year for which data is available, broken down by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) ethnicity.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many arrests under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 were made by each police force in England and Wales in the most recent year for which data is available.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) spending by the rail industry on private security and (b) her Department's funding for the British Transport Police.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department is committed to working with the rail industry as we move towards the creation of Great British Railways to ensure that security provision on the network keeps staff and passengers safe. The Department are currently undertaking analysis of private security spend by the 14 train operating companies that have been or are due to be nationalised.

The British Transport Police (BTP) budget is set by the British Transport Police Authority (BTPA). BTP's costs are passed on to individual Train Operating Companies and Network Rail. BTPA sets the BTP’s budget annually following proposals from the Force and views from industry. BTP work closely with BTPA and industry operators to make final resourcing decisions with their agreed budget.

In the year 2025/26 BTP received a 5.9% budget increase. The budget for 2026/27 will be set by the BTPA imminently following engagement with the rail industry. Like other police forces the BTP has operational independence, so the BTP Chief Constable and Chief Officers use a variety of data to inform the deployment of officers and other resources, following the agreement of the budget.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made on (a) value for money and (b) quality of service of bringing outsourced rail security provision in-house as contracts expire.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Ensuring value for money is a requirement for all DfT contracted train operators. Publicly owned train operators also have a duty to follow the guidance on managing public money.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it mandatory for all new housing development projects to ensure that 50% of the developed units are built for social rent, allowing the remaining 50% to be used for affordable or market-rate/luxury housing.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) makes clear that local authorities should assess the size, type, and tenure of housing needed for different groups, including those who require affordable housing (including Social Rent), and reflect this in their planning policies.

This includes setting out the proportion and type of affordable housing that should be expected of new development, including the minimum proportion of Social Rent.

Policy requirements, particularly for affordable housing, should be set at a level that takes account of affordable housing and infrastructure needs and allows for the planned types of sites and development to be deliverable, without the need for further viability assessment at the decision-making stage.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which of the train companies contracted to the DfT have outsourced security contracts; and the value and length of those contracts are.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The majority of DfT contracted train operators have contracts for specialist passenger facing security provision. Contract details for public sector operators can be found at this link https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. Details of private sector operators’ contracts are commercially confidential.

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