NEW measures to protect NHS staff are to be introduced to try to reduce the thousands of assaults on them that take place every year.
Staff are to be given better training in dealing with violent situations and offenders will be prosecuted more quickly.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will set out further details later.
He says the NHS will adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to violence against its staff.
A bill to double the sentence for assaults on emergency workers from six months to a year is shortly expected to become law too.
The NHS Violence Reduction Strategy expands on work previously carried out by a body that was scrapped by government more than a year ago.