Percentage increase in assaults on emergency workers during pandemic 10 times higher in England and Wales

Ambulance Workers Are More Likely to Get Injured—and Assaulted—on the Job
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Based on a Freedom of Information request to Police Scotland published on 1st September 2020:

Data collated at 07/07/2020 provides that between 23/03/2019 and 23/06/2019 there were 1702 such assaults on (all) emergency workers and 1760 in the same period in 2020.

https://www.scotland.police.uk/spa-media/divfr3ej/20-1091-response.pdf

The increased rate was 3.4%

In England and Wales, based on a 4-week period ending on 2nd of August there was a 31% increase:

https://cdn.prgloo.com/media/3a5509c01e924ab0993124cdeb57167b.pdf

No raw data was provided.

These statistics are, of course, not strictly comparable but are nevertheless reasonably suggestive of a sharp difference.

6 thoughts on “Percentage increase in assaults on emergency workers during pandemic 10 times higher in England and Wales”

  1. Expect a hard hitting BBC Shortbread ‘Disclosures’ expose on this rocketing increase in attacks on our emergency services .
    What is the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon going to do about it ?
    Expect suitably morose actors voicing concerns of ”anonymous” workers too traumatised to appear on screen . Expect an appearance from Labour’s Monica Lennon – mouthing sh*t as usual but in a caring way !

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  2. Bet they can find a Professor at Oxbridge who can “prove” the figures don’t add up.

    Funding provided by Dark Money Inc, MI5 Futures Trust and GCHQ Investments.

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  3. A little more context for the recent figures in England from the Mail Online.

    “More than 4,000 attacks on emergency service workers took place in six months
    The attacks happened after new laws were brought in to protect service workers
    Attacks in London account for 34 per cent of all assaults on emergency workers”

    Not sure that it covers all emergency workers and does count assaults on prison staff.

    “In a depressing snapshot of Wild West Britain, there were more than 4,000 attacks on police officers, hospital staff and prison officers in just six months.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7343089/More-20-emergency-workers-assaulted-day-line-duty.html

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  4. The increase in assaults on emergency workers in England seems to have been steadily increasing over years. This from 2018.

    https://www.theweek.co.uk/96456/attacks-on-emergency-workers-in-five-shameful-statistics

    “More than 70 police officers attacked a day
    Home Office data for forces across England and Wales show that 26,295 police officers were assaulted on duty in 2017-18, marking a 34% rise over five years.

    Ambulance workers faced more than 14,000 physical assaults from 2012-13 to January 2018, according to figures from trade union GMB.

    Data obtained by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) on behalf of the Unison union shows that physical assaults on NHS staff increased by nearly 10% last year. Based on figures from about three-quarters of the English trusts, a total of 56,435 physical assaults on staff were reported in 2016-17. If those figures are extrapolated to cover the whole of England, the total number of assaults was probably close to 75,000.”

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  5. The ONS violent crime survey paints a slightly different picture.

    “Trends in violent crime
    Over the last two decades the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has shown long-term reductions in estimates of violent crime. Victimisation rates decreased from 4.7% of adults being a victim of violent crime in 1995 to 1.7% in the year ending March 2018. However, over the last four years levels of violent crime measured by the CSEW have remained fairly flat, indicating a change in the previous downward trend.

    While the overall level of violent crime showed no change compared with the previous year, there is evidence of increases in some lower-volume, higher-harm violent offences recorded by the police.

    The number of homicides recorded by the police showed a fourth consecutive annual rise in the year ending March 2018, following a long-term decline.

    Police recorded crime and NHS data have also indicated rises in the number of offences involving knives or sharp instruments over the last four years. These offences tend to be concentrated in London and other metropolitan areas.”

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/thenatureofviolentcrimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018

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