Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has with representative bodies to ensure that plans to provide protection from assault to front-line retail workers include (a) bank and (b) building society staff.

Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has introduced a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

My officials have met with UK Finance and Barclays Bank to discuss the issue of assaults on bank and building society staff, which is an issue we also take extremely seriously.

Assaults against workers in the bank and building society sectors are already an offence (common assault) under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, and are covered under other legislation such as the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which also covers more serious violence, including actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 creates a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing cases of assault against public facing workers. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public, including public-facing roles in banks and building societies.