My Lords, Amendment 56N would create a new clause in the Bill. I think it is a key amendment. Since tabling it, I have received expressions of support from all sides of the House. I am glad to see the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, and the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, in their places. They and others have expressed to me support for this amendment. I have not yet had the support of the Minister. I know that he is a listening Minister—I think it is the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, who is going to reply. I know him very well. I bump into him at airports and other places. I know he listens to logical
argument and is concerned about these issues. I am sure that with a little persuasion we will get some sympathy, if not today then at some later stage.
I am sure that other Members of this House have been motivated as I have been by stories of shop workers who have been attacked when trying to apprehend shoplifters and effectively doing the work of a policeman. They are surrogate policemen in those instances, yet they get attacked as a result. There have been stories, too, of licensees set upon by teenage thugs for refusing to sell them liquor because they are underage. They may be underage for buying liquor but many of them are big, strapping lads and can inflict serious injuries on shopkeepers. That was the motivation behind the amendment and I will give a few examples and arguments later.
First, I acknowledge with sincere gratitude the help and support that I have received from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers—USDAW—in drafting the amendment and advising on it. Unions sometimes come under attack and receive criticism of one sort or another, which is sometimes apposite, but they really look after their workers in so many ways. When legislation is being considered, our concern is to see what can be done to improve the lot of those workers. I particularly thank Karen Whitefield, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament, who helped with this, and Ruth George, one of the USDAW staff, who helped me greatly.
This amendment would cover more than just shop workers. It would cover health workers, public transport staff—about whom the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, is particularly concerned—local government staff, government agency staff, postal workers, teachers and catering staff; so the coverage is widely spread. In our privileged position in this House, it is sometimes easy for us to be divorced from the problems experienced daily by those on whom we rely for basic goods and services, so I will give some statistics that the union has provided. In 2012 alone, there were 120,000 violent attacks against retail staff throughout the United Kingdom; it is a very widespread problem. The Association of Convenience Stores has also expressed concern about this. In a briefing earlier today, it said that in the past three months more than half of retailers reported being victims of verbal or physical abuse during the course of their work. These are ordinary working people, often earning the minimum wage or little more, who are being attacked for simply doing their jobs and upholding the law of the land.
Consider for a moment the fact that 30%—nearly a third—of such violent and abusive incidents occur, as I said earlier, when customers are challenged on restricted items such as alcohol or cigarettes; that is, when staff are upholding the laws that we passed. Other such incidents occur when staff confront shoplifters, again when those staff are upholding the laws that we passed.
The assaults suffered by these workers are especially traumatic. People then have to go back and continue to work each day in the same situation in which they were attacked. Many retail staff report anxiety, panic attacks and a pervasive fear that such an incident will happen again. Such are the conditions under which they work.
I was given one example of a man in Sunderland out celebrating his lenient sentence—ironically, for a previous assault on someone with learning disabilities—who tried to steal some pork scratchings. He was challenged by a shop worker. First, he racially abused her in front of children and then tore out chunks of her hair. The shopkeeper was left shaking and crying, with her hair on the ground. The offender received as a punishment only a 12-month suspended sentence, effectively getting off. Such decisions do not acknowledge the physical and mental anguish suffered by the victim and do not inspire public faith in the criminal justice system. To make matters worse, there are so many cases that go unprosecuted. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that an USDAW survey showed that 17% of retail staff who had suffered a physical assault at work had not reported it as they believed that nothing would be done.
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What, then, does the amendment do? It sets out to create a specific offence of assaulting someone who works with the public in the course of their employment. At present, doing that is simply one of 19 aggravating factors, and experience of prosecutions and sentencing shows that that is often not enough to see justice done. In far too many instances, because of the laws that currently govern assault in the workplace, the police and the CPS seem to decide that it is just not worth prosecuting people in those cases of common assault, as they will be fined perhaps only £50 at the end of that long procedure.
If, however, the amendment was passed, it would help to bring such cases to court and ensure that sentencing reflected the seriousness of the crime. By making assault on a public-facing worker a separate offence the amendment would elevate the seriousness of that crime and put it well above the offence of common assault in the sentencing guidelines. That, in turn, would make the range of penalties for offenders higher, thus encouraging a higher number of prosecutions. It would also send a clear message that such behaviour was totally unacceptable and, I hope, have a deterrent effect.
I advise the Committee that in Scotland similar protective measures for emergency workers have led to a decline in such incidents and to more than 1,000 prosecutions. I hope that the Committee will agree that the time has therefore come to provide shop workers, health workers, public transport staff, local government staff, government agency staff, postal workers, teachers and catering staff with a similar level of protection. If the Government are really on the side of those hard-working people—I know that the Minister has said so on a number of occasions, as have others—they can start by joining with us who support this amendment to give these men and women the peace of mind and support that they deserve. I beg to move.