A POA member Jason Swan is seeking members support regarding a petition to Parliament.

When emergency service workers enter a dwelling and become subject of verbal abuse/insults, there is no legislation to record any offence, this includes where Prison Officers are involved in incidents within an individual’s cell.

Currently the only legislation mentioning emergency service workers is assaults, where a clear threat to or an actual assault must occur.

This was concerning to many as there would not be any method of recording the abuse or any aggravated factor such as any hate element involved.

After researching this loophole for abuse to emergency workers he created a Parliamentary Petition.

To create an offence ‘to exhibit behaviour that is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to emergency workers, inside a dwelling’.

Currently emergency workers, particularly police and ambulance staff, attend people's homes and can become victims of verbal abuse. Public order offences cannot be committed where both parties are inside a dwelling, meaning people can't be charged for behaviour that would be an offence if it took place in another setting.

This should be an aggravated offence if the offender has demonstrated or been motivated by hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or transgender identity.

The petition was published on 02/01/23 on the Parliamentary petitions site and requires 100,000 signatures to trigger a debate in Parliament.

Please support this petition. 

Petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/653146