Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many police (1) callouts, (2) investigations, (3) charges, and (4) convictions, there were to reported incidents of abuse and hostility towards public service workers in the last year for which figures are available.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of police recorded offences, and their investigative outcomes (including charges outcomes), 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 Home Office does not hold data on police call outs or investigations.

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.

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 Ministry of Justice publish information on prosecutions and convictions, including ‘Assault of an emergency worker’ offence. These can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2022