Protect the Protectors - West Yorkshire emergency services face attacks on duty
West Yorkshire’s three blue lights are standing together in support of new laws which will give emergency service workers better protection against attacks while on duty.
West Yorkshire’s three blue lights are standing together in support of new laws which will give emergency service workers better protection against attacks while on duty.
The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill 2017- 2019 will bring in harsher penalties against those convicted of attacks on emergency crews – and will hopefully act as a deterrent in the future.
The private members’ bill is due to be read for the third time in the House of Commons this Friday, April 27th – marking a significant milestone and a step closer to seeing the law come into force.
In the last year alone (April 2017/April 2018) operational firefighters from West Yorkshire have come under attack almost 100 times, and non-operational staff suffered six incidents of violence towards them.
In 2017/18 West Yorkshire Police recorded 1,741 assaults on employees, whilst 840 incidents of verbal and physical abuse against Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff were reported in 2017/18.
Chief Fire Officer John Roberts said: “We are pleased to see the bill, coined ‘Protect the Protectors’, enter into its final stages in the House of Commons before it progresses through to the House of Lords where hopefully it will achieve royal assent.
“West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has been campaigning hard to raise awareness of what our emergency crews have to face when trying to protect people from harm.
“They are pelted with stones and sometimes bricks, and over the bonfire period we see mindless people using fireworks as weapons against them – it is disgusting behaviour and it needs to stop.
“We hope that with the support of parliament the emergency services can be better protected against acts of mindless violence towards them and we hope MPs and the general public will give this bill their full backing.
The Bill would:
introduce a new triable either way offence of assault or battery committed against an emergency worker, with a maximum penalty of a 12 month prison sentence when tried in the Crown court;
introduce a statutory aggravating factor for the courts to consider when sentencing certain assaults against emergency workers; and
enable bodily samples to be taken from persons suspected of offences against emergency workers which may pose a risk of the transmission of an infectious disease