This petition was rejected

The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:

We understand that you want the Government to take action to increase penalties for people who intentionally seek to spread coronavirus, but it's not clear exaclty what you want the Government to do.

The Crown Prosecution Service has been clear that coughing on other people could be charged as common assault, and that such behaviour against emergency workers is punishable by up to 12 months in prison. Manslaughter and Actual Bodily Harm are already offences, and it would be up to the Crown Prosecution Service to decided if there were circumstances where intentionally spreading coronavirus could lead to being charged with one of these offences.

We have published a petition calling for mandatory jail sentence for assaulting (eg. spitting/coughing) emergency worker, which you might like to sign: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/309432

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/

Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/