Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to update the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861.
Although the Government has no current plans for a comprehensive update to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, it has introduced several measures in connection with offences against the person including: filling a gap in the law on non-fatal strangulation by creating a new offence and clarifying that a person has no defence if they claim a victim consented to behaviour intended to cause serious harm in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and supported a Private Members Bill to create a new form of assault with an increased maximum penalty where the victim is an emergency worker carrying out their duties. The Government also proposes in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to create a statutory requirement to consider, as an aggravating factor in sentencing, an assault on a public facing worker serving the public.