Only 13pc of offenders who attack police and 999 workers are jailed

JUST 13 per cent of criminals who attack police and emergency workers are being sent to jail with more being let off with a fine, official figures show.

The average time behind bars was never longer than three months, according to data covering the first 11 months since new sentencing laws for attacks on emergency workers were introduced. From the middle of November 2018, the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act doubled the previous maximum sentence to 12 months in jail for such offences.

Campaigners have branded the figures a “disgrace and an insult”, leaving offenders “sticking two fingers up to the system” after getting a “slap on the wrist”.

There were 11,964 prosecutions for assaulting a constable and assault or assault by beating an emergency worker between November 2018 and September 2019, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics.

Around 80 per cent of prosecutions resulted in convictions (9,629) in this period. Of these, 13 per cent (1,518) were an immediate custodial sentence while 18 per cent resulted in a fine (2,137).

John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, called for magistrates to do more to protect his colleagues.

He said: “The fact nearly nine out of 10 individuals who are charged under the new Act walk free from a court is a disgrace and an insult.

Mr Apter added the laws and the Home Secretary’s previous pledge to double the maximum sentence to two years were welcome but would be “useless until magistrates step up to the plate and dish out the maximum sentence of one year which is already at their disposal”.