LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2021) The UK government announced on Wednesday that it will introduce changes to the law "as soon as possible" to give mandatory life sentences for those who kill an on-duty emergency service worker while committing a crime.
"The move extends mandatory life sentences to anyone who commits the manslaughter of an emergency worker on duty - including police, prison officers, firefighters and paramedics - while carrying out another crime unless there are truly exceptional circumstances," the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.
The new law has been named after police officer Andrew Harper, who was killed in August 2019 while responding to a call about a stolen quad bike in Berkshire, southeast England. The three teenagers involved in his death were sentenced to 13 to 18 years in prison on manslaughter charges.
Following the verdict, Harper�s widow launched a campaign to seek tougher sentences for police killers.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky news broadcaster that the government�s proposal to change the law was not just in response to Harper�s case but out of concern for the scale of the attacks on emergency workers recently seen in the UK.
According to Raab, last year alone there were 10,000 convictions for assaults on emergency workers.
"I want emergency workers to know that we've got their back," he said.
The so-called Harper's Law is expected to make it onto the statute books via an amendment to the existing Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which would likely become law early next year.
