A NORTH-EAST MP said she hopes the work of a Parliamentary group to investigate one punch assaults will help many families.

Dehenna Davison, MP for Bishop Auckland has this week launched the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for One-Punch Assaults, which aims to examine sentencing and the impact on surviving victims and the families of those killed.

The launch mark 14 years since the death of Ms Davison’s father, who was killed after a punch was thrown.

The Bishop Auckland MP has now chaired the inaugural meeting of the APPG, which will seek to, both understand why so many feel a deep sense of injustice after sentencing, and to change the law to fix that.

Ms Davison said: “I am really excited to be officially launching the APPG.

“We will be inviting in victims who have life-changing injuries, the families of victims who are no longer with us, perpetrators, judges, lawyers of both sides, investigating police officers and anyone else with a really relevant interest in this.

“Every time I have spoken to victims or the families of victims there is a sense of burning injustice and I really want to get to the bottom of that.

“The work of the APPG will have such a huge impact on the lives of many families.

“I am grateful to the members from across the House who joined me to officially launch the APPG and support my plans to improve the lives of victims’ families across the UK.”

The Conservative MP, has spoken previously in Parliament about her father’s death, using her platform to thank the medical staff who “fought valiantly” to save her him and raise awareness of the real impacts of violence.

Newly elected officer of the APPG, Emma Lewell-Buck MP said:“I was pleased to join my constituent Maxine Thompson Curl, founder of One Punch North-East, and her husband Tony Curl at the inaugural meeting of the APPG for One Punch Assaults.

“As an officer of this new group I am looking forward to working with Maxine, Tony and others pushing for change and raising awareness of the devastating harm that can come from one punch attacks.”

Ben Everitt, Andrew Bowie, David Linden and Catherine McKinnell MP were also elected as officers on the APPG.

Whilst there are no official figures are available on one-punch deaths, the campaign group One Punch Can Kill has recorded more than 80 fatalities since 2007.

Mr Curl, of One Punch North East said:“One Punch UK are very excited to be working alongside Dehenna Davison and APPGOP we have been working hard for a number of years to work within parliament, we believe we will start to make some headway.”

The APPG has already started work on raising awareness of the impacts of violence and is asking for victims to provide evidence to their inquiry.

Anyone who has been affected by the impacts of one punch assaults and interested in participating in the inquiry are advised to send an email to dehenna.davison.mp@parliament.uk