A new law has been introduced that will double the sentence given to people who have assaulted a member of the emergency services.
The Assault on Emergency Workers Act, which came in to effect last Tuesday, increases the maximum penalty from 6 to 12 months.
According to the act, emergency workers include “police, prison officers, fire and rescue personnel, certain NHS workers who have interaction with the public as part of their work” and those performing emergency functions, paid or unpaid, and on or off duty.
The campaign was launched by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) in February 2017 after MP Holly Lynch joined a police patrol and witnessed the hostile conditions faced by officers.
The Royal College of Nursing, UNISON and other organisations have also supported the campaign and took to Twitter to welcome the new legislation.
There has been an increase in recent years in the number of assaults on emergency personnel with 26,000 assaults on police officers recorded in the past year. 15.2% of NHS staff responding to a staff survey say they have experienced physical violence in the past year.
Assaults on prison officers increased by 70% from 2014 to 2017 and 933 incidents involving an attack on firefighters were recorded in the last year, the highest figure since data was first collected. Such assaults vary from harassment to physical and verbal abuse.
John Apter, National Chair of PFEW said, “Whilst we acknowledge that we did not get everything we wanted from this new Act – we feel sentences are still not as strong as they need to be – this is a significant step forward in the right direction and we will continue to make the case for a stronger deterrent.”
The Act applies to England and Wales only.