§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he intends to bring forward proposals to strengthen legislation to punish those who attack and injure policemen carrying out their duties.
§ Mr. JackNo. The courts already have strong powers to deal with those who attack and injure police officers and 77W the Court of Appeal has made it clear that they should use them. The results of a survey of sentences imposed in the last six months of 1991 for assaults on the police demonstrated that the courts recognise that such assaults are despicable and deserve to be punished severely. Immediate custody was imposed for a significantly higher proportion of the assaults on the police covered in the survey than for assaults on all victims in 1990.