Emergency Workers (Protection) Bill

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his recognition. It gives me great pleasure that we are discussing the Bill today, and it gives me even more pleasure to learn that the right hon. Gentleman has reached a compromise with the Government enabling the Bill to proceed at least in part, if not in total. I know that any Member who moves the Second Reading of a Bill—such as the hon. Member for Ealing, North (Stephen Pound), who is sitting behind the Minister—must compromise on certain clauses if the Bill is to proceed. That does not mean that others cannot argue that the original intent is worthy of consideration, and challenge the Government to justify the changes that they seek. What must also be justified today, however, is the contention that the offences specified in the Bill cannot be dealt with by existing legislation. That was raised by the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson) and by the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth), who I am sure will enlighten us further should he be lucky enough to catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that if the offences could be dealt with by existing legislation, this debate would be a waste of time and we would do better to press the Government to enforce that legislation. It has become clear to me, however, that the existing law is not working, and is not adequate to deal with the growing number of assaults and cases of services’ being impeded. In the last Parliament, I had the pleasure of being part of the Liberal Democrat team shadowing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. I had special responsibility for the fire and rescue services, and was a member of the Standing Committee considering the Bill that became the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. That Bill was generally welcomed, and was supported by all three parties in principle if not always in detail. As the party spokesman, I visited different parts of the country to speak to fire crews. I was horrified that, wherever I went, I heard tales of assaults on crews. I visited the Strathclyde control room, which it is particularly worth looking at because the Government plan to reproduce that model across the rest of the United Kingdom. The stories staff told me were similar to those I had heard from the rest of the country. I heard about fire crews not just being attacked but being deliberately set up, with a call being made and an ambush laid across the road. Perhaps a car would be set on fire, or crews would be called to a dead end, pull in, find their way blocked and be stoned and attacked by youths.Such tales will be familiar to ambulance and fire crews in Northern Ireland, but to find that people are doing that for kicks, in a part of the UK where there is not such civil disruption, is a serious and dangerous trend. The growing number of attacks on nurses in hospitals is again well documented, but, as I acknowledged in an intervention, the Government have taken action to deal with that. When I asked questions about that matter previously, I was told that the Government believed that this legislation was unnecessary because they had already taken steps to deal with the problem, and I accept that a lot of work has been done.