Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on potential revisions to the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 to help ensure fitness for purpose and to improve protection for victims.

There has been no recent discussion with Cabinet colleagues on reforming the Offences against the Person Act 1861.

The Government has, however, introduced several measures in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 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. We also supported the creation of a new form of assault with an increased maximum penalty where the victim is an emergency worker carrying out their duties and proposed - in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill – to increase the maximum penalty for assault on emergency workers to 2 years’ imprisonment. In the same Bill, the Government additionally proposed a new statutory requirement on the courts to consider, as an aggravating factor in sentencing, an assault on a public facing worker serving the public.