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Emergency Workers (Protection) Bill

Does the Minister not accept that when dealing with assault, it is important to make it clear, to young people especially, that emergency workers are a special case because they save people’s lives? That point is rather lost in the guidance of the Home Office and the courts on how things should be weighted. I do not know of many 16-year-olds who would say, ““Oh, this is weighted, so I won’t do it.”” If there were a clear red line to say that an assault on such workers would be an aggravated assault, they would be more likely to take account of that.