Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of assaults on shop workers resulted in (a) a discharge, (b) a fine, (c) a community order, (d) a suspended custodial sentence and (e) an immediate custodial sentence in each of the last three years.

The Government recognises the damaging impact that violence and abuse can have on victims, businesses, and the wider community; and we are committed to tackling this issue.

The Home Office published their response to a call for evidence on assaults against shopworkers on 7 July: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-and-abuse-toward-shop-staff-call-for-evidence

Court outcomes data centrally held by the Ministry of Justice does not identify the specific occupation of the victim. The information may be held on court record, however identification of the occupation of victims would require access court records to manually collect information, which would be of disproportionate cost.

The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions and sentencing outcomes for ‘Common assault’ up to December 2019, available in the Outcomes by Offence data tool:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888664/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2019.xlsx