Two separate surveys indicate a growing lawlessness among Londoners, with damaging consequences for some public sector workers

Murder on the Tube: Jorge Ortega’s killing at Ilford last year is one of an increasing number of assaults on TfL staff

Once every two days.

That is how often Transport for London employees working at the capital’s Tube stations are attacked and hurt while simply doing their jobs.

Those alarming figures are matched by the results of another shocking survey just released that shows a staggering rise in physical and verbal attacks on London Ambulance Service staff and paramedics, with more than 8,000 assaults on frontline workers in the past five years.

The Tube worker assault figures have been obtained from TfL, with a deteriorating situation highlighted in horrific fashion by the murder of Elizabeth line worker Jorge Ortega at Ilford station late last year.

“Nobody should have to face any violence at work — and certainly not something as shocking as this,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted on social media at the time.

The London Ambulance Service figures come as the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives warns that ambulance services across the country are on course to report the “highest-ever rate of violent, aggressive and abusive incidents against staff”.

Data reveals that a total of 3,170 incidents of physical assaults against LAS staff have been logged since 2019, and 5,008 verbal and other non-physical assaults in the period 2019 to 2024.

“These figures are extremely concerning. Nobody should have to feel threatened at work – especially hard-working, vital NHS staff,” according to Patrick Mallon, a solicitor with Legal Expert, who compiled the paramedic data.

“Something must be done to tackle abuse towards NHS staff who, for the majority, are just trying to do their jobs.”

Similar “violence in the workplace” figures from TfL show that their Tube station staff are almost six times more likely to be subject to an assault, physical or verbal, than they were three years ago. The figures revealed that 691 assaults between April 2020 and March 2024, an average close to 250 per year, had left employees injured.

Last month staff from TfL’s compliance, policing, operations and security directorate went on strike, with the Unite union claiming that workers had been “racially abused, spat at, attacked with a bottle, punched and headbutted”.

According to the data seen by Accident At Work Claim UK, recorded injuries caused by assaults on TfL staff have shot up by 468% across four years.

Between April 2020 and March 2021 – the period of lockdown and public transport cancellations caused by the covid pandemic – there were 56 assaults recorded. When covid restrictions were lifted, attacks on Tube station staff have continued rising, from 136 in 2021-2022, to 181 in 2022-2023, to 318 in 2023-2024.

The assaults took place across 171 TfL stations over the course of the five-year period, with Victoria the most common location, where 25 assaults took place.

The data is restricted to TfL stations, and does not include railway stations or TfL’s bus stations.

The most common site of an attack was Victoria, with the station’s staff subjected to violence 25 times.

Booking halls were the scene of most assaults. On 280 occasions, an assault was recorded as being committed against staff in the areas ahead of the gates. Another 111 attacks happened at the gate line, potentially caused in part by attempted fare-dodgers.

The data states that five of the attacks led to staff members “sustaining serious injury”. Another 683 led to workers being treated for minor harm.