Jobcentre Plus Staff (Assaults)

HC Deb 07 November 2002 vol 392 cc670-1W

Mr. Brazier

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the latest quarterly figures are for incidents of violence against staff in Job Centre Plus offices. [79070]

Mr. Nicholas Brown

[holding reply 4 November 2002]: We estimate that during the period July to September 2002 over 10 million callers visited Jobcentre Plus offices. The number of recorded assaults (excluding incidents of verbal abuse) in Jobcentre Plus offices during this period are shown in the table. The figures show a decrease on the previous quarter's statistics.

	Actual Assaults	Attempted Assaults
April to June 2002	92	191
July to September 2002	86	154

These figures include all offices within the Jobcentre Plus network including Jobcentres, Social Security Offices and newly integrated Jobcentre Plus Offices.