It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South (Matt Vickers) on securing this debate on a topic that I think everyone in this House can support. Our police and emergency workers do some of the most difficult jobs out there. They put their lives on the line, confronting violent situations every day to keep the public safe. They pick up the pieces when things go wrong and do their best to bring calm to some of the most challenging situations.
This morning, I heard from Jamie Thompson, who is the chair of the Cheshire Police Federation. He told me that legislation passed in 2018 has made a difference to sentencing in Cheshire, but cases of attacks on police officers continue to rise and we need to be tougher. In 2019, there were 30,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales, with 625 in Cheshire. I am particularly grateful to the Cheshire constabulary, who, over the past few months, have seen an increase in antisocial behaviour during the pandemic. I commend them for their hard work in tackling that for local residents.
To be clear, any attack on a police officer, prison officer or emergency worker is completely unacceptable. I suspect that I might be the only Member speaking in this debate who has used the legislation in a judicial capacity over the past couple of years. As a magistrate, when dealing with cases in which ambulance staff have been attacked as they carry out their work, or a prison officer going about his job has been knifed, I hear the personal impact statements from those brave members of our community who have to live with both the physical and mental consequences of such terrible incidents. Earlier, someone mentioned the impact of seeing body cam footage and, as a magistrate, having watched some of those terrible experiences, I can only imagine the heartache that those brave people go through.
I welcome the fact that the Government have been clear that Ministers will keep maximum penalties under review to ensure that they appropriately reflect the seriousness of the crime. In another point, will the Minister feed back to the Attorney General that decisions taken by the CPS when charging are critical, and that it should be encouraged wherever possible to charge assaults
under section 47 rather than section 39, in order for a case to go to the Crown court for a more serious and lengthy sentence?
Finally, I welcome the introduction of the police covenant, which is a critical step. It will provide formal recognition and a clear sign of the value that the Government place on supporting police and their families.