New figures show hundreds of assaults on emergency workers in West Yorkshire since 2020

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

Latest Home Office crime figures show 222 assaults against emergency workers have been recorded by West Yorkshire Police between March 2020 and the end of 2022.

Of these assaults, 80 took place in 2022, and 79 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 42% of these crimes in West Yorkshire 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.

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."

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