Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what training members of the police are undertaking to communicate and assist victims of image-based abuse.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Intimate image-based abuse can have a devastating impact on the lives of its victims and this Government will treat violence against women and girls (VAWG), online and offline, as a national emergency.
The College of Policing set the curriculum for policing which includes educational outcomes on image-based abuse. At present, individual forces choose how to deliver this training, often by commissioning local experts and support services.
The Government is determined that every force must have the right specialist capability to investigate these crimes properly. We will therefore work closely with the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs' Council to strengthen the training for officers on VAWG.
Under the Online Safety Act 2023, it is an offence to send, share or threaten to share “deepfake” pornography. This is part of a new “base offence” that criminalises someone for sharing an intimate image without consent. This Government has committed to banning the creation of sexually explicit “deepfake” images.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to tackle violence against women and girls in (a) Ashfield constituency and (b) Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable, and we have set out our unprecedented mission to halve it within a decade.
Achieving this means overhauling every aspect of society’s response to these devastating crimes.
This Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and we will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence. This includes ensuring that victims can access support services.
Last month we unveiled a series of bold measures designed to strengthen the police response to domestic abuse, protect victims and hold perpetrators to account. This includes a new approach named ‘Raneem’s Law’ which will be piloted from early 2025. Reneem’s Law will see domestic abuse specialists embedded in 999 control rooms to advise on risk assessments, work with officers on the ground and ensure that victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly. We will also seek to create dedicated domestic abuse teams within every police force.
In addition, Nottinghamshire PCC has received up to £1m between 2022 and 2025 through the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse Fund. All future decisions on funding will be made in due course as part of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether future funding for organisations tackling violence against women and girls will (a) support the full running costs of services, (b) make provision for cost of living increases over the funding period and (c) allow for the remuneration of staff.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
To make our streets safe, we must drastically reduce serious violent crimes and violence against women and girls; increase confidence in the police; stop young people falling into crime and make our criminal justice system work for victims.
We have set out our mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
This Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and will use every tool to target perpetrators and ensure survivors have access to the support they need.
All decisions on funding will be made in due course as part of the Spending Review. The Majority of funding in this space is from MoJ and MHCLG.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
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 - Shadow Minister (Housing and Planning)
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.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were sentenced to prison for assaulting an emergency worker in each year since 2019.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Shadow Minister (Housing and Planning)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants sentenced to immediate custody for theft offences, common assault and battery, and assault of an emergency worker in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022.
To see how many defendants were sentenced to immediate custody for theft offences, navigate to ‘Sentence outcomes’ tab, select ‘Theft offences’ in the ‘Offence group’ filter, and select ’06: Total immediate custody’ in the ‘Sentence Outcome’ filter.
To see how many defendants were sentenced to immediate custody for common assault and battery, navigate to ‘Sentence outcomes’ tab, select ‘105 Common assault and battery’ in the ‘Offence’ filter, and select ’06: Total immediate custody’ in the ‘Sentence Outcome’ filter.
To see how many people were sentenced to immediate custody for assaulting an emergency worker, navigate to ‘Sentence outcomes’ tab, select ‘8.22 Assault of an emergency worker’ in the ‘Offence’ filter, and select ’06: Total immediate custody’ in the ‘Sentence Outcome’ filter.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people received a custodial sentence for assaulting (a) an emergency worker and (b) a police officer in the course of their duties in each year since 2019.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 created an aggravated offence of common assault or battery when committed against an emergency worker acting in the exercise of their functions as an emergency worker, including a police constable. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 increased the maximum penalty from 12 months to 2 years’ imprisonment for any offence committed on or after 28 June 2022.
The Police Act 1996 includes an offence of assault of a constable in the execution of his duty, with a maximum penalty of 6 months imprisonment. This offence remains on the statute book as it has broader application than the assaults on emergency workers offence and includes the wilful obstruction of a constable, or the assault of a person assisting a constable. However, there may be circumstances in which this offence remains to be used for an assault on a constable.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of offenders sentenced and the average custodial sentence length for both offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022, using the following HO codes:
While improving our data processing in 2022, a data mapping issue was discovered in the Courts Proceedings Database whereby an estimated 1,301 convictions (227 in 2019, 530 in 2020 and 544 in 2021) for the offence ‘00873 – Common assault or battery of an emergency worker’ were not correctly mapped to this offence at Crown Court, therefore were not presented in the published data. We are exploring ways to add these convictions to the Outcomes by Offence data tool in future publications. This mapping was corrected in data for 2022 and therefore all data going forward will present correct figures.
There are also several other assault offences which may be charged depending on the level of harm caused including actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, and grievous bodily harm with intent. These are not specific to emergency workers or police officers. However, the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 created a statutory aggravating factor where such offences are committed against an emergency worker
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of custodial sentence was for assaulting (a) an emergency worker, and (b) a police officer in the course of their duties in each year since 2019.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 created an aggravated offence of common assault or battery when committed against an emergency worker acting in the exercise of their functions as an emergency worker, including a police constable. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 increased the maximum penalty from 12 months to 2 years’ imprisonment for any offence committed on or after 28 June 2022.
The Police Act 1996 includes an offence of assault of a constable in the execution of his duty, with a maximum penalty of 6 months imprisonment. This offence remains on the statute book as it has broader application than the assaults on emergency workers offence and includes the wilful obstruction of a constable, or the assault of a person assisting a constable. However, there may be circumstances in which this offence remains to be used for an assault on a constable.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of offenders sentenced and the average custodial sentence length for both offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022, using the following HO codes:
While improving our data processing in 2022, a data mapping issue was discovered in the Courts Proceedings Database whereby an estimated 1,301 convictions (227 in 2019, 530 in 2020 and 544 in 2021) for the offence ‘00873 – Common assault or battery of an emergency worker’ were not correctly mapped to this offence at Crown Court, therefore were not presented in the published data. We are exploring ways to add these convictions to the Outcomes by Offence data tool in future publications. This mapping was corrected in data for 2022 and therefore all data going forward will present correct figures.
There are also several other assault offences which may be charged depending on the level of harm caused including actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, and grievous bodily harm with intent. These are not specific to emergency workers or police officers. However, the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 created a statutory aggravating factor where such offences are committed against an emergency worker
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
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 - Shadow Home Secretary
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.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
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
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.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
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 Baroness Maclean of Redditch
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.