The information requested has not been collated centrally for the period 1997-2004.
A table outlining the estimated number of reported violent and abusive incidents collected by the Department for 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 for each strategic health authority (SHA) in England is available in the Library.
In April 2003 the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS) was created and assumed responsibility for the issue of tackling violence against NHS staff. The NHS SMS has collected data on the actual number of reported physical assaults on NHS staff in England 2004-05 and 2005-06.
A breakdown of the figures for each SHA, for the 2004-2006 reporting periods, is provided in the table shown.
SHA name 2004-05 2005-06 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire 2,342 2,508 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 1,206 2,104 Essex 1,286 1,142 North West London 1,321 1,293 North Central London 1,249 1,017 North East London 1,162 883 South East London 1,459 1,673 South West London 819 841 Northumberland, Tyne and Wear 4,043 3,551 County Durham and Tees Valley 3,333 1,787 North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 1,345 1,347 West Yorkshire 4,796 3,683 Cumbria and Lancashire 2,989 2,534 Greater Manchester 2,481 2,119 Cheshire and Merseyside 2,389 2,567 Thames Valley 1,639 1,600 Hampshire and Isle of Wight 1,724 1,882 Kent and Medway 2,407 2,120 Surrey and Sussex 1,821 1,507 Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 2,900 2,863 South West Peninsula 895 1,418 Dorset and Somerset 1,504 1,800 South Yorkshire 2,272 2,310 Trent 3,664 3,612 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland 1,665 2,247 Shropshire and Staffordshire 2,440 2,669 Birmingham and The Black Country 2,952 2,761 West Midlands South 2,277 2,857 Total 60,380 58,695