Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions for assaulting an emergency worker have related to assaults against (a) police officers, (b) NHS staff, (c) prison officers, (d) firefighters and (e) other emergency workers since the offence was introduced.

The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 is legislation that amended section39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to provide offences relating to common assault or battery committed against an emergency worker while carrying out their duties.

The CPS maintains records of the number of offences in which a CPS prosecution commenced, including offences of assaulting an emergency worker. The data provided in the table detailed below shows the total number of offences in which a prosecution by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) commenced at magistrates’ courts under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 since it came into force on the 13^th November 2018. However the CPS does not hold any central record of the details of complainants’ occupations.

It should be noted that the figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It may be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence. No data are held on the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of defendants charged with, or prosecuted for these offences. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.