Hundreds of assaults on emergency workers in Greater Manchester

In 2020 police forces began to record a new category of crime - assaults without injury on emergency workers.

Latest Home Office crime figures show 367 assaults against emergency workers have been recorded by Greater Manchester Police between March 2020 and the end of 2022.

Of these assaults, 195 took place in 2022, and 68 the year before, with the remainder taking place from early 2020 onwards.

The offence applies to attacks on 'blue light' workers, paramedics and fire fighters, along with many others, including prison officers, NHS workers, and St John’s Ambulance volunteers - but does not include police officers, who are covered by a different crime code.

The 2018 Assaults on Emergency Workers Bill came into law, imposing a maximum prison sentence of one year for common assault on an emergency worker – a sentence that was doubled in 2022.

Over the past few years 12 per cent of crimes that had outcomes recorded in Greater Manchester resulted in a charge.

Across England and Wales, 3,347 assaults on emergency workers were recorded in 2022, a slight rise on 3,342 the year before.

And since the crime was introduced, 34 per cent of recorded incidents have resulted in the offender being charged or summonsed.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: "People become firefighters to serve their communities and help to keep people safe. It’s appalling that firefighters should face violent attacks while doing their job.

“This is not a new problem, and in the past work has been done to address it.

"Unfortunately, sweeping cuts to the Fire and Rescue Service since 2010 have meant the end of many youth and community engagement programmes which aimed to educate and include local communities in the work that firefighters do."

Ambulance workers are also frequent victims of assault – the 2022 NHS Staff Survey found 45 per cent of paramedics had experienced violence from patients or the general public.