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Emergency Workers (Protection) Bill

The right hon. Gentleman says, ““Oh!””, but he said he supports the Bill. The choice I had to make, which also had to be made by fire brigades officers, the Fire Brigades Union and the ambulance workers, was over whether they wanted to lose their new defence of taking action against impeding in order to go down fighting for legislation that would almost certainly be lost due to means that we all well understand in this place—being talked out either today or, most certainly, on Report, which is the death ground of so many private Members’ Bills. Instead—not with enthusiasm, but in the hope that the good will is genuine in respect of what has been offered in return—I have agreed that in Committee we shall remove the repetitious element dealing with assault. I want my Bill to go through, so I am willing to rely on the written guarantees I have received, which the Minister has undertaken to reiterate today. She has particularly assured me that she will try to ensure that there are measures to achieve more prosecutions under existing law—it seems to be the will and machinery that are lacking—and that the Government will try to improve the sentencing guidelines. In that respect, they envisage assault on an emergency worker being treated as an aggravated offence. It would therefore involve a higher sentence.