(Lab): My Lords, I
declare my interest as the elected police and crime commissioner
for Leicestershire and Rutland, and it is in that role that I
unreservedly support the Bill and hope that it reaches the
statute book as soon as possible. I congratulate my noble friend
Lady Donaghy on agreeing to take the Bill through your Lordships’
House and on her opening speech this morning, and like her, I
congratulate and on taking the Bill through the
other place.
As a police and crime commissioner, I know how lucky
Leicestershire police are in having such an excellent Police
Federation branch, led by its chair, Tiff Lynch, and its
secretary, Matt Robinson, both of whom were recently re-elected
without contest to their important posts. It is a pleasure
working with the Fed, even on the rather sadder and more
disgraceful issues, such as the widow of a police officer who was
killed in the line of duty not being allowed her pension. I was
particularly delighted when I was approached to support the Bill,
a long time ago now, before it was introduced in the other
place.
As a police and crime commissioner, I see how every day the
police work with the other emergency services, be it the fire
service, the ambulance service, the Prison Service or, of course,
the health service in all its aspects. As emergency workers, they
are individually and together a crucial part of what makes our
society civilised. Just imagine a day without them. Every one of
them is vulnerable every day to physical assault and sometimes to
sexual assault as well. The message in this Bill—the most
important thing about it, for me—is that society must protect
those who protect society. I see this Bill as something of a
wake-up call. As a society we have perhaps become just a little
too tolerant of behaviour which is actually intolerable. Some
seem to think that emergency workers, wherever they are, somehow
sign up to being assaulted when they take their job. The message
of this Bill is loud and clear: no, they do not. It seems to me
that a cultural shift is needed, and this Bill points the
way....
(Con): My
Lords, I do not intend to detain the House very long on this
glorious Friday morning, but this past week I have been inundated
by emails and other messages from Police and Crime Commissioners
around the country urging me to show up in the Chamber this
morning to support this Bill, and I am delighted to do so. I
begin by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, for agreeing
to steer this short but very significant Bill through your
Lordships’ House.
As I say, I have had a large number of messages from Police and
Crime Commissioners telling me how strongly they support this
Bill, and how important they believe it to be. I am not saying
that PCCs are happy with the Bill. Indeed, most of them have gone
out of their way to make the point that they are not happy with
it because they do not believe that it goes far enough in
protecting emergency workers from assault while in the process of
carrying out their duties. According to one PCC, the provisions
in this Bill,
“are still derisory but better than nothing”.
I think it is fair to say that that reflects the tone of most of
the messages I have received...
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