My Lords, I support what the noble Lord has just said. I was moved to speak to the amendment having recently watched the six films on Channel 4 about the staff on First Great Western. It was brought to my attention—although I should have known it—that there was a lady guard or train manager
on a train going from Paddington to Swansea. She went the whole way and was by herself. The train was invaded by drunks at Paddington, Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport and Cardiff. They got off at one place, another lot got on, and they got more and more drunk as the train went on. She had no means of defending herself whatever; I think it was only her good sense of humour that got her through. Other films showed people manning ticket barriers by themselves and being fearfully abused by people who were offering violence and that sort of thing.
That caused me to wonder about transport workers who work alone. If you are driving a bus in north London on a Friday night—I do not advise you to be a passenger—some people’s behaviour can be quite awful. We expect public servants to take that. As the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, said, we sit here in comparative safety and peace, but I know from my time on the police authority that going around big cities on Friday and Saturday nights is an appalling position in which to be, especially during the small hours. I suppose that policemen cannot be offended by obscenities and threats of violence, but I am sure that many staff are very much frightened by them.
When I was coming to your Lordships’ House at the beginning of the week, on Monday, I was standing on the Bakerloo line platform at Paddington, where there was a relatively young lady who was the Bakerloo line duty manager. A man who looked as if he was drunk and had been to the races—the camel coat was the sign—was abusing her with the most awful obscenities, waving a stick and threatening to punch her, and all sorts of things. Yet she was down there in the station, absolutely alone; there was nobody else to whom she could turn for support.
What I want to know, and what I would like the Minister to mention in his reply, is whether the penalties really fit the crime. Is it enough to fine people £50 when the magistrate or court sits on a Tuesday morning, when everybody is sober and fairly well behaved? There should be an exemplary punishment. I am not in favour of shutting a lot of people up in prison, but there is scope for very substantial periods of community service. If they have to be served on Saturday and Sunday—or, more particularly, on Sunday, clearing up the mess of the night before—it is all well and good. If those people can be taken off the streets for a fair period of time, it would send a message not only to them but to the people with whom they associate.
In the peaceful town where I live—at least, I think that it is peaceful—fairly recently, a person racially abused a bus driver, assaulted him and broke his glasses. In that case, the court sent him to prison, though not for very long. It needs to be ingrained in people’s minds that if you assault somebody who is doing a public duty, particularly when that person is alone, you need to be dealt with more severely. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, will have something to say about how that penalty can be toughened up.