Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I welcome the extension of Clause 170. I regret that I was unable to state that at Second Reading, particularly as so many people had criticisms of the Bill; a positive comment might have been welcome. The clause seeks to make it a criminal offence to commit a nuisance or disturbance on hospital grounds, and there can be little doubt, if any, that we must protect healthcare workers from this type of behaviour. However, I have tabled Amendments Nos. 164 to 166 because, as drafted, the Bill does not offer that type of protection to all those who provide NHS services. The elegant amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, unfortunately does not cover all hospices and community pharmacies. Under the current definition, ““NHS premises”” is restricted to hospital buildings, hospital grounds and other buildings within the hospital grounds. The current wording seems to have forgotten those workers who carry out their work for the NHS on premises other than hospitals. That group is growing as NHS contracts increasingly involve non-NHS providers in both the private and voluntary sectors—people who work in hospices, pharmacists, optometrists, physiotherapists and community health visitors, to name but a few. Surely those healthcare workers deserve protection from threatening nuisance and aggressive behaviour, let alone from assault, just as much as their colleagues who work in a hospital. They often work alone and are at no less risk of violence than those in hospitals. All those listed in Section 60(2) in Part 3 of the Health Act 1999 should be covered by the Bill. Amendment No. 166, which is included in this group, seeks to protect NHS workers in the community who provide care in patients’ homes. My amendment would make it an offence to cause physical or mental harm to that group of NHS workers. I have worked in healthcare for 30 years and seen aggression in the hospice setting and violence in the community. I was very lucky, but others have been seriously maimed and some killed. I myself was threatened with a knife when on a home visit some years ago and have been on home visits where the family members of the patient were extremely unpleasant. I know how vulnerable healthcare workers feel when visiting in the community, even though lone-worker policies are in place to track their movements and provide some sort of protection. I remind the House that ambulance workers are often the first to arrive at a patient’s home in an emergency, such as when someone is injured in a drunken affray. And it is not just ambulances; healthcare workers’ own vehicles are often effectively an office on wheels for those who are out in the community full-time. They deserve the same protection as anyone in a vehicle on NHS premises, who are covered in the Bill. Official NHS statistics show that, in 2006-07, 55,709 physical assaults against NHS staff were reported—and the phrase ““officially reported”” is important because we have no way of knowing how many incidents go completely unreported. That is more than 150 a day, over 1,000 a week. Improvements are being made. The number of physical assaults against NHS staff seems to be falling. The Government have made that a priority and a benefit is beginning to come through, but the numbers are still far too high and the type of assault far too damaging. Some might say that the offences are already in general legislation, but this is a classic situation where legislation can be tightened, which then gives out a message to society. We must have zero tolerance of the assault of healthcare workers, just as we have in place a specific offence of assaulting a police officer in the course of his or her duty.