Emergency Workers (Protection) Bill

I think it is agreed across the House that we are discussing a very serious problem. Assaults on people at work in the emergency services and our public services are at an unacceptably high level. The latest figures show that in 2004–05 there were more than 11,000 physical assaults against national health service acute services staff. I know from just one of the NHS trusts serving my constituency that there were 163 physical assaults on staff in the last financial year, and 183 the year before. That brings home to me the scale of the problem. There were more than 1,300 physical assaults on NHS ambulance staff across the country in 2004–05. We also know that this is a growing problem. In my local ambulance service, violent incidents against staff increased from 221 in 2001–02 to 300 the following year. I am sure that hon. Members from both sides of the House will be able to relay the fact that this is not only an issue of great public concern but one that is clearly increasing, and therefore merits serious consideration of what further measures are necessary to tackle it. Hon. Members have expressed some objections to the Bill and it is worth our reflecting on them. Whereas there seems to be a consensus across the House that a new offence of impeding an emergency service worker is needed, reservations have been expressed—I suspect that we may hear them from the Minister—about creating a new offence of assaulting an emergency services worker. It is contended, first, that existing legislation is adequate to deal with such assaults; and, secondly, that a specific offence of assaulting an emergency worker or somebody working in public services might make it harder to prosecute those offences. It is argued against those views that, as has been pointed out, there is already a separate offence in Scotland, giving protection specifically to emergency service workers, passed by the Scottish Parliament last year, and there is of course an existing separate offence of assaulting a police officer. At one stage the Government did take the view that specific measures were necessary to deal with this problem. The Labour election manifesto said,"““we will introduce tougher sentences. . . for those convicted of assaulting workers serving the public.””" But those tougher sentences did not feature in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill, and when my hon. Friend the Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison) moved amendments to create an offence of violence against a public servant, addressing broadly the same problem that this Bill seeks to address, the Government rejected that approach, preferring to rely on sentencing guidelines as expressed by the Sentencing Guidelines Council, that assaults on people working in the public sector are aggravated. It is true that the number of convictions for attacking, for example, NHS staff has risen. However, we must consider whether Parliament needs to send a stronger signal both to express concern about assaults on emergency service workers and to deter future offences. My judgment is that we need to send such a signal, partly because of the increase in the number of offences and the scale of the problem that exists and partly because, as has been pointed out, the effect of assaulting or impeding an emergency service worker could put the public at risk if those workers are taken out of action. So harm is being done not just to the people who work in the services, but to the public broadly. Therefore, on public policy grounds, a specific offence or an aggravated offence to stop that may well be justified. I am not persuaded by what I have heard so far about the Government’s reasons for rejecting a specific offence of assaulting an emergency services worker or, indeed, of creating some kind of aggravated offence, not least because Parliament has accepted already that certain offences should be considered as aggravated—for instance, racially motivated attacks—and it has proved perfectly possible to prosecute people for those offences. I am not sure whether the obstacles that people sometimes claim will be placed in the way of the specific offence are necessarily viable, but I will listen very carefully to what the Minister has to say. After examining the Bill and listening to what the right hon. Member for Swansea, West and other Members said, I share the consensus view that these issues should be examined in Committee. People who work in public services do a vital job, often in difficult circumstances, and we all rely on them. The House should send a very clear signal that we believe that assaults on ambulance staff, firefighters, doctors and nurses are totally unacceptable. For that reason, we support the Bill. I hope that it will receive a Second Reading and that these detailed issues will be examined in Committee, so that the precise need for and wording of additional measures can be scrutinised. I very much hope that the Government will share what is clearly a great deal of support for the Bill on both sides of the House.