Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Bill

I hope that the promoter of the Bill, the right hon. Member for Swansea, West (Mr. Williams), will be able to allay my concerns, but as the Bill stands, anybody who attends an emergency but is not employed by an NHS body will be discriminated against compared with someone who is so employed. Much as we all love the NHS, we recognise that the health service extends beyond it. Surely all those who are trying to assist during a medical emergency should be covered, irrespective of whether they are employed by a relevant NHS body. Amendment No. 3 would therefore leave out those words and would cover"““a person employed…in the provision of ambulance services (including air ambulance services), or of a person providing such services””—" without qualification. Amendment No. 4 would do the same later in clause 1(2)(c). Amendment No. 5 attempts to clarify, and indeed slightly restrict, the definition of people who would be deemed to be emergency workers when transporting organs, blood or equipment by inserting the word ““medical”” before the word ““equipment””. I have no argument with the Bill covering people doing such work, but it should not cover just any equipment or personnel. Why should a van carrying people who work in the NHS to their residences or hostel be covered, and why should that provision be restricted to NHS employees? Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman had to put that provision in at the behest of the Government, but we should treat all health workers equally, irrespective of whether they are employed by the NHS. They are all doing a good job, in my book. Amendment No. 9 is a consequential amendment, which would remove the definition of a relevant NHS body. The amendments have the virtue of clarifying and simplifying the Bill. Amendment No. 12 would remove clause 5, but in my opinion the promoter of the Bill has the chance to decide what it should contain. Why is there any needto modify it? Why does he not have the self-confidence to believe that the Bill is the last word on the subject for a considerable time? We know that the Bill would repeal certain legislation and replace it with similar legislation, but this Bill would also create new crimes. Surely Parliament should be averse to allowing the Secretary of State to add new crimes to our criminal code without our having the chance to consider them in detail. Removing clause 5 would improve the Bill significantly.