Emergency Workers (Protection) Bill

I thank you for your direction, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I was not aware that Tim Martin had said that. He is a constituent of mine—[Interruption.] I stand corrected. Tim has now moved on; he used to be director of that company. The new director made those comments. I come back to the legislation under discussion. I hope that the Minister will say, and be able to prove in Committee, should we get that far, exactly why the Government wish the assault provisions to be stripped out of the Bill, why they feel that that matter is adequately covered and why the Bill does not aid existing legislation. What is sought, and what I sought in my campaign, is to ensure that emergency workers have equity with the police, who are already offered protection under their own legislation. That comes back to the comments by the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson) about whether this Bill is creating separate legislation. As I said, such legislation already exists for the police. The Bill extends that protection to other emergency workers who are going about their duty. When we were brought up in the 1950s and 1960s—and the 1970s and 1980s—the issue was not so important and emergency workers did not require such protection because, to be blunt, assaults were not committed. Times have changed. When times change, it is for us as legislators to ensure that we keep up. That is why I believe that this is an important Bill. The hon. Lady mentioned the categories of people listed in the Bill. They include members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. I have a lifeboat station in my constituency and I am told by members of its crew that, occasionally, people try to impede them and that they have assaulted when they have been going about their duty. Also included are social workers—there was some cross-Bench chat about that earlier, when some concern was expressed. The right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) seemed to be saying that MPs act as social workers. Occasionally, perhaps we do, but not in the context of an emergency. The Bill clearly defines that a social worker would be protected under the legislation when taking action"““required or permitted by""(i) a care order;""(ii) a supervision order;""(iii) a child assessment order;""(iv) or emergency protection order””." Also covered are approved social workers within the meaning of section 145(1) of the Mental Health Act 1983, chapter 20. There are specific cases where social workers have been attacked, or impeded in going about their duties, which can be deemed, in terms of child care or mental health, to be an emergency within the meaning of the Bill. Measures to protect social workers were added to the Scottish legislation after a Lib Dem amendment was accepted by the Scottish Executive. I am very pleased that they are included in this Bill. I believe that enough of a case has been made for the Government to answer questions on how they are responding to attacks on emergency workers, and for the Bill to go to Committee stage to be considered in greater detail. If the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst and other Members are not convinced, they will have an opportunity at a later stage to reject or to vote against the legislation. I urge them at this stage to support the Bill. It should move on to Committee, Report and eventually Third Reading. It is worthy and well supported across the country.