§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment for each quarter since January 1992, what is the number of recorded assaults on staff by claimants in Employment Service offices. [32360]
§ Mr. PaiceI have been asked to reply.
Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Stephen Byers dated 6 July 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of recorded assaults on staff by claimants in Employment Service (ES) offices during each quarter from January 1992.There are currently around of 1,200 ES local offices carrying out some 2 million direct transactions with the public each week, so in any one quarter there are approximately 25 million face to face contacts with the public. It is against this backdrop that the following table of recorded assaults over the past 3 years should be seen.
Quarter ending Actual assaults1 Attempted assaults Verbal assaults March 1992 38 13 284 June 1992 44 47 250 September 1992 49 116 149 December 1992 72 169 158 March 1993 70 123 156 June 1993 69 79 187 September 1993 74 140 231 December 1993 45 116 155 March 1994 61 91 249 June 1994 42 54 179 September 1994 70 59 483 December 1994 92 50 474 March 1995 91 51 664 1 These figures include staff who sustained no physical injury as a result of the assault. The ES takes very seriously the safety of its people and over the past two years we have regularly emphasised the importance of reporting all incidents and staff have been actively encouraged to do so. Furthermore, the likelihood of assault in every ES local office is assessed by trained risk assessors and appropriate steps taken to reduce the risk.
I hope this is helpful.
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