Thugs to face double time for attacking emergency workers

OFFENDERS who assault police and other emergency workers are to face a doubling in jail sentences, to a maximum of two years, in response to a 14 per cent rise in such attacks during the pandemic.

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, today announced a four-week consultation on the plans to double the maximum penalty for anyone found guilty of assaulting a police officer, firefighter, prison officer or paramedic.

It comes just two years after the Government introduced a specific offence of assaulting an emergency worker with a maximum of one year in jail.

That was in the face of an 18 per cent rise in assaults on police, in which officers were injured, to 28 per day.

The ministers were moved to toughen sentences further after a surge in offenders “weaponising” the virus by threatening to spit or cough at police and other emergency workers or by actually doing so.

Figures from the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) for England and Wales showed a 14 per cent rise in attacks in one month compared with last year. The NPCC said the increase was likely due to a rise in attacks where suspects spat at officers “while claiming to be infected with Covid-19”.

Data from 16 police forces revealed 386 spitting and coughing offences in the eight weeks after lockdown, a rise of 214 on the same period in 2019.

Ms Patel said: “This consultation sends a clear and simple message to the vile thugs who assault our emergency workers – you will not get away with such appalling behaviour and you will be subject to the force of the law.”

Mr Buckland said: “Being punched, kicked or spat at should never be part of the job for our valiant emergency workers who put their lives on the line to keep the public safe.”