AN MP has called on government to change the way crimes are recorded and create a separate category for assaults on public service workers who work in customer facing roles.
Shipley MP Philip said it would help to understand the full extent of attacks and to see whether incidents were rising or on the decline.
He said: “I have always been clear that assaults on public service workers cannot be tolerated and those committing these crimes should be given the toughest sentence available. I have spoken to many customer facing workers who have been attacked, emergency workers, shop workers, prison officers and I know the horrors they face just for doing their job.
“This move would be the first step in ensuring all data is available so we can see the number of assaults, which workers are being attacked, the circumstances surrounding those attacks and then ensure appropriate punishments are given out. I believe this would go some way to showing the staff we are on their side as no one should be in fear of attack when they go to work.”
Mr Davies questioned government over what plans it has to introduce more categories for crimes during a series of Parliamentary questions.
In a written response, Home Office minister Chris Philp said: “Currently only assaults on Police and Emergency Workers are captured as a separate classification within the Home Office’s police recorded crime and outcomes statistics.
“There is an ongoing review of the rules governing how crime is recorded by the police in England and Wales and this will consider the case for introducing additional classifications to better understand the impact of crime across other areas such as retail workers and public sector workers.”
Mr Davies said a separate category for all public service workers should be the minimum change made but he would like to see these categories broken down further. He would also like the crimes be given a minimum sentence to send out a strong message assaults on workers will not be tolerated.
Previously Mr Davies - who worked at ASDA before he became an MP - was at the forefront of the campaign in Parliament to make assaults on a shop or frontline worker a separate and specific criminal offence, which the government adopted.