Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to publish an updated strategy on violence against women and girls; and whether she plans to included policies on (a) improving access to sexual violence services and (b) support for child sexual abuse victims within that strategy.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government has been clear that the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable, and we are treating it as the national emergency that it is.
The new VAWG Strategy will set the direction for the next decade, driving forward the Government’s bold ambition to halve VAWG within ten years. This is a landmark commitment that demands a truly transformational approach. It’s vital we get it right. We’re working towards publication of the Strategy as soon as possible and I will continue to keep the House updated on its development and forthcoming publication.
Support for victims of VAWG crimes will be a core part of the new Strategy. This includes victims of sexual violence and child sexual abuse and exploitation. Tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation will be covered in the VAWG Strategy, as well as being the subject of its own distinctive and transformative workstream specific to those horrendous crimes. That includes acting on the recommendations of both the IICSA and Baroness Casey Audit into the evil of grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Additionally, the Ministry of Justice has committed funding to the Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Centre in 2025/26 to develop and deliver evidence-based training and resources for those working with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and continues to invest in specialist sexual violence support services via the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund and ringfenced grants to Police and Crime Commissioners who allocate funds locally.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the offence of assault against an emergency worker on trends in the level of (a) arrests and (b) convictions of women.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The offence of assault against an emergency worker is the responsibility of Ministry of Justice.