THUGS who assault officers and other emergency services workers could face up to a year in prison after the Protect the Protectors Bill was granted Royal Assent.<\/p>\n
The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill will become law in November and sends out a \u2018clear signal\u2019 that assaults will not be tolerated according to the PFEW.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis has come after an incredible amount of hard work and lobbying by us. Being assaulted \u2013 whether you are a police officer, firefighter, prison officer or paramedic \u2013 is unacceptable and the sentences should be harsher,\u201d said PFEW Chair John Apter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst we didn\u2019t get everything that we wanted in this Bill, it is a start and a significant improvement on what we had.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur journey to \u2018protect the protectors\u2019 hasn\u2019t finished \u2013 we will continue to lobby to ensure that when our members and other emergency services are assaulted, those responsible are given harsher sentences than they have in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Official figures have revealed there were more than 26,000 assaults against police officers, including British Transport Police officers, in England and Wales during 2017\/18. However, that figure is thought to be much higher due to assaults being under reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteps have been taken to improve the quality of the data, however there is still work to be done to ensure that all incidents are accurately recorded so a true picture can be obtained,\u201d John added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis responsibly also falls to the individual Chief Constables to make sure that all officers have the confidence \u2013 and support \u2013 to report every incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacks on blue light workers should never be considered \u2018just part of the job\u2019 and I hope this new law will act as a strong deterrent for those who think that it is acceptable to assault police officers or other emergency service workers and appropriately punish those who do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to extend our sincere thanks to MPs Chris Bryant, Holly Lynch and others from all sides of the political divides, as well as the House of Lords who have supported this Bill,\u201d John added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will now look to the courts to use their new powers to the fullest and provide the deterrent and protection that police, and emergency workers deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THUGS who assault officers and other emergency services workers could face up to a year in prison after the Protect the Protectors Bill was granted Royal Assent. The Assaults on\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4733"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4761,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions\/4761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}