A trust has been fined £4,000 for breaches of health and safety legislation. As former deputy police commissioner Larry Roach reports, protection from violence is covered by the same rules

ADDRESSING NURSES at RCN Congress this year, the health secretary, Frank Dobson, announced that he was ‘...determined to stamp out loutish behaviour that puts you at risk’. With commendable speed, the NHS Executive followed his commitment to tire safety of nurses with a good-practice document on security in A&E and promises of guidelines on NHS safety as a whole in the near future. More recently, in an interview with Nursing Standard, Mr Dobson said tougher sentences for people who commit violent offences against nurses and other healthcare staff were being considered.