Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of (a) abuse and (b) other hostility towards public service workers were reported in the last 12 months.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of police recorded offences on ‘assaults on a constable’ and the number of ‘assaults on an emergency worker (other than a constable)’ on a quarterly basis and that can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

Information on other public sector workers is not separately identifiable within police recorded crime.

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.

The Home Office has taken a significant step to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against those who are serving the public, via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This means the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences. This provision commenced in June 2022.