UK Edition
Assaults on police and emergency service workers have nearly doubled despite tougher sentences, according to new research.
The number of assaults on police has increased from 23,000 to more than 40,000 since ministers quadrupled the maximum sentence from six months in jail to two years for assaulting an emergency worker.
Research by the charity Transform Justice suggested tougher sentences are failing to deter assaults, with increasing numbers apparently committed by people with mental health conditions.
The data, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, showed that two-thirds of those imprisoned for assaults on PCs and emergency workers reoffended in 2020, the same rate as before the introduction of the tougher laws.
It also found that as many as three-quarters of those being prosecuted are suffering from mental ill health, with official watchdogs warning that courts are being “choked up” with minor assaults at the expense of more serious cases, like rape.
Andrew Cayley, chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Inspectorate, said increasing the sentences had led to more cases being elevated to the crown courts, which are already suffering record backlogs following the pandemic and barristers’ strike.
Rise in cases 'chokes up the system'
“Many people elect for trial in the crown court,” he said. “So you have hundreds of these cases in the crown court, sometimes for serious matters, but often for spitting at a police officer, or maybe smacking a police officer.
“It is something that needs to be dealt with by the justice system, but it does not need a trial in the crown court, and often these people are self-representing. Often, they’ve got mental health issues, and it chokes up the system when you might have something much more serious - such as a rape - to deal with.”
Penelope Gibbs, director of Transform Justice and a former magistrate, said the data showed offenders handed cautions or fines were a third less likely to reoffend.
"No one should go to work to be a punchbag and we need to do everything in our power to reduce violence against police and other emergency workers,” she said. “If someone in a mental health crisis lashes out, they need to understand the harm they've done.
“But virtue signalling through ever harsher criminal punishment doesn't reduce reoffending. And government data shows it can make sense to resolve these crimes without going to court.”
'Pressure on crown court backlog'
Almost all common assault offences are heard in the magistrates’ court. However, the higher maximum sentence for assault emergency workers makes it a “triable either-way” offence - meaning defendants can choose for their cases to be heard in the crown court.
Mark Fenhalls KC, a former chairman of the Bar Council, said: “The blunt reality is that, if it had stayed as a common assault with aggravating features, thousands of cases which would have stayed in the magistrates’ court and resulted in prison terms would not have put pressure on the crown court backlog.”
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the clinical watchdog, estimated that about 40 per cent of people detained in police custody had a mental health condition. However, researchers said the proportion of those detained for assault on an emergency worker was higher, because of the higher likelihood of contact between the two in febrile situations.
“One solicitor who regularly worked on these cases estimated 80 to 90 per cent involved a defendant with mental ill-health or who was neurodivergent,” said a spokesman for Transform Justice.
“We have no definitive answer, but we estimate that two-thirds to three-quarters of those accused of assaulting emergency workers have mental health problems.”