Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions there have been under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in each of the last two years.

Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of offenders convicted for offences relating to assault on emergency worker, covering the period requested. The latest data available, up to the year ending June 2023, can be obtained with the following data tool: Outcomes by Offence tool: June 2023.

In the data tool, navigate to ‘Prosecutions and Convictions’ tab and select ‘8.22 Assault of an emergency worker’ in the ‘Offence’ filter.

The pivot table will present the total number of offenders convicted for assaulting an emergency worker since year ending June 2011, including the requested last two years.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will hold discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service on increasing prosecutions for assault of emergency workers in Bolton.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Any assault on an emergency worker is unacceptable and I am determined to do everything I can to ensure they are prevented.

As part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, we have brought forward legislation to double the maximum sentence for assaults on emergency workers.

The Office for National Statistics’ Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and its latest estimates shows that the number of incidences of violence has fallen by 41% since the year ending March 2010, to 1.1 million incidences.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice on 18 October 2022 (59996), what issue resulted in undercounting convictions for offences under the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018; and whether it was rectified for data published in and after November 2022.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

While improving our data processing in 2022, a data mapping issue was discovered in the Courts Proceedings Database production. As detailed in the Criminal Justice System statistics December 2021 publication, an estimated 3,220 convictions for the offence under the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018 were not correctly mapped to the offence of Assault on Emergency Worker between 2019 and 2021 meaning an undercount for that offence in those years. This issue was reflected in the known issues tabs of our published data tools and tables. Convictions in 2018 were not affected.

We fixed the incorrect mapping of 1,919 of these convictions (274 in 2019, 619 in 2020 and 1,026 in 2021) which are presented in the year ending June 2022 edition of the Outcomes by Offence data tool. This means that an estimated undercount of 1,301 convictions for this offence remains (227 in 2019, 530 in 2020 and 544 in 2021). We have quantified the remaining undercount and will explore ways of incorporating this in future publications.

This mapping has been corrected in data for 2022 therefore all data in future years, since the Criminal Justice System statistics June 2022 publication, will present correct figures.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) prosecuted (b) found guilty (c) sentenced to prison for offences under the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018 in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022, broken down by gender and ethnicity.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Ministry of Justice publishes these figures on an annual basis on the GOV.UK website in the Magistrates' court data tool (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 17.1 MB) and the Crown Court data tool (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 8.42 MB) as part of the Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2021 publication published in May 2022. However, in the course of ongoing modernisation of our data processing, we have identified an issue resulting in undercounting convictions for the offence in the Crown Court each year. This is highlighted in the ‘known issues’ tab of the above link and, as a result, the Crown Court data tool is missing 501 convictions in 2019, 1,149 in 2020 and 1,570 in 2021.

Therefore, the total number of defendants prosecuted for assaulting an emergency worker in England Wales in 2021 was 17,043, with 14,992 convictions in the same year.

The sentencing outcomes, ethnicities, and sex breakdowns for those convicted at Crown Court are affected by this processing issue and we are working to rectify this in time for our year to June data, published in November 2022.

Figures in the magistrates’ court data tool are not affected by the data processing issue – this includes prosecutions, convictions and sentencing at magistrates’ court as well as those sent for trial or committed for sentence at the Crown Court.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to mark the contribution of emergency workers killed in the line of duty.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

It is important that we recognise the vital role emergency service workers play in society. This is never more true than when they make the ultimate sacrifice. That is why the government was pleased to support the national memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum, and why the Home Secretary and Ministers regularly show their support for the police during commemorative events.

All UK honours and medals are in the personal gift of HM The Queen under the Royal prerogative. The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medal (HD Committee) gives advice to The Queen on honours matters, including new forms of official national recognition. The Honours and Appointments Secretariat in the Cabinet Office supports the Committee and will consider the options for recognition.

Found: the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2020 to Question 78583 on Emergency