Emergency Workers (Protection) Bill

One of our greatest missions in life is to make the right hon. Gentleman happy. I think he will leave the Chamber slightly, if not entirely, reassured. I gave the example of razor blades and a banister. Further examples include a live electricity cable fixed to the inside of a door handle so that the firemen have no warning of what awaits them, and, even more grotesque, holes in floors covered with mats or other material, so that as the firemen go into a first or second storey room, they are unaware that they are about to step into a hole. In the past year, a fireman was shot in Borehamwood, and there was the tragic case in Scotland of a young baby who was killed by someone firing at the fire brigade attending an incident. It is thought that one bullet missed the firemen and killed the poor young child. I shall quote from a letter from Des Prichard, the chief fire officer of East Sussex. Writing on behalf of all the fire chiefs throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, he states:"““Attacks do not impact only on firefighters, they ultimately impact on communities. If equipment or vehicles are damaged, they are unavailable for duty.””" But the more important point is this:"““If, in certain areas, attacks occur regularly, crews have to wait until escorts are available to accompany them””—" so they are delayed waiting for the police, who otherwise would not need to be there, to take them to the incident. He continues:"““Ultimately, if we are prevented from carrying out our jobs because of attacks, there is no doubt that our operational response will be affected and we may have to reconsider the types of incidents we attend.””"