Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill

Lord Paddick Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Friday 29th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Paddick (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, would like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, for sponsoring this Bill and to say how good it is to follow the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey. As he alluded to, he has been very closely associated with policing and the other emergency services for decades, and we should place considerable weight on the evidence that he has presented to us. I of course should declare an interest: I was a police officer for over 30 years. To take up the theme that the noble Lord started on whether things have changed, I would say that some things have changed and some things, sadly, are very similar to those that I experienced when I joined the Metropolitan Police in the mid-1970s—I tell people I joined when I was seven, but that is not quite true.

In the mid-1970s, the best piece of protective equipment that we as police officers had was between our ears: you could usually talk your way out of most problems. That is not the case today. I remember that there was a dance hall on the Holloway Road and, every Friday and Saturday night, at about 1 am, when the dance hall closed, some of the people who were inside came out and inevitably started fighting on the pavement. Tempers that had been boiling up inside spilled out on to the street. We would sit in our panda car and wait for the inevitable to happen, then get out of the car, shout “Police!”, and everybody would stop. We would go up to the ringleaders, arrest them, and they would come very quietly with us back to the police station for fighting in the street. Nowadays, those combatants are far more likely to turn on the officers than they are to come quietly, as happened in my day.

There is a real issue, not just with the level of sentencing but the attitude of the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts towards assaults. Even when I was still in the police service, some years ago now, there were often very clear, by definition of the law, assaults occasioning actual bodily harm—“Section 47s”—or even very clear grievous bodily harm or wounding offences, which the Crown Prosecution Service downgraded to Section 47s or to common assaults. Courts presented with the lower offence would sentence appropriately. So this tolerance of violence in society is also a tolerance of violence even in the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts, and in my opinion it should not be there. It is not part of the job—as it may have been at the formation of the Metropolitan Police Service—to expect emergency workers to be assaulted as part of carrying out their duties.

Police officers in particular place themselves in harm’s way while the rest of us are able to stand aside. As the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey, said, spitting in the face of police officers and other emergency workers is a particularly disgusting and increasingly prevalent type of assault that needs to be tackled through this sort of legislation, bearing in mind that there is usually no injury, as such, caused by that behaviour. Of course, over the years there has been an erosion of respect for authority generally and a lack of respect—or a falling away of respect—for those in uniform. But it is time for us as politicians to stand up for our uniformed services, our emergency services. Running down the police service, for example, may be politically expedient, but it has an impact in terms of the respect that members of the public have for the police service. We have seen some of that in the change in the volume of assaults taking place.

In April 1981, on my day off, on a Saturday, I went into Brixton, collected 10 random officers from across London and six plastic shields and went into the Brixton riots. A number of cars and buildings had been set alight and the fire brigade obviously had been called in to extinguish them because, in some cases, life was at risk. Some of the people engaged in those riots turned on the firefighters and started stoning and throwing petrol bombs at them. Our job was to go in and clear the streets to enable the fire brigade to do its job. So, again, these sorts of attacks on other emergency service workers are not a new thing, but they are increasingly prevalent.

Only on Wednesday this week, an ambulance crew was called to a 13 year-old girl in cardiac arrest in Eastleigh, Hampshire. It was a false call and an ambush. The ambulance crew was attacked with bricks, chairs and bottles by the attackers who had lain in wait. What sort of society are we in that diverts a life-saving ambulance crew simply to ambush and attack it? That is why we need this legislation. As the noble Lord, Lord Bach, said, a cultural shift is needed away from tolerance of violence in society—and, in my opinion, in the CPS and the courts.

I have some sympathy with the noble and learned Lord, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood. We have to get away from continuing sentence inflation. If my noble friend on these Benches who leads on justice were here, he would agree largely with what the noble and learned Lord said. But prison is an entirely appropriate place for violent people who pose a threat to society—and those who assault emergency workers pose such a threat, not just because they are evidently violent but because, in assaulting those people charged with preventing violence or tending to victims, they are adding to society’s culture of violence, and that is unacceptable. I agree with the noble and learned Lord that increases in maximum sentences do not necessarily result in the courts increasing sentences. However, as I have repeatedly said, the CPS and the courts need to be in no doubt how seriously legislators take these issues, and they must take them seriously as well.

I have to take issue with the noble Lord, Lord Wasserman, who said that most of the assaults on emergency workers are committed by people who are either drunk or under the influence of drugs. I was a police inspector and had a very young and inexperienced constable with me, and we were called to a woman who had been very badly beaten up by her male partner to the extent that we had to call an ambulance. We decided to call for assistance before approaching him—but unfortunately, he approached us. There was a violent struggle and we ended up on the floor, the probationer holding the man’s legs while I was trying to pin his arms down on the floor, and he was so strong that he was pushing me up to try to escape from us. That was a deliberate assault on police that was not to do with drugs or drink. He was a violent individual. In those cases—our injuries were only minor—we need this sort of sentencing power for the courts to punish those individuals for that sort of attack.

The noble Baroness, Lady Watkins of Tavistock, talked about the new psychoactive substance Spice. I will say only that the irony is that Spice was designed as a legal replacement for the illegal drug cannabis, yet it is far more dangerous and creates far more psychosis than the drug it was designed to replace. Despite the Psychoactive Substances Act, possession of Spice except in prison is still legal, yet the less harmful substance, cannabis, is not. Our drugs laws are in a mess.

The Police Federation—I am grateful to it for meeting me yesterday—tells me that in a recent case, an officer from Essex Police was assaulted while making an arrest, and the assailant broke the officer’s arm. He was charged with resisting arrest and was fined £20. In what way is that a deterrent?

We on these Benches see these as exceptional circumstances. As the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyton, said, emergency workers cannot remove themselves from violent situations. They cannot walk away or turn the other cheek. If a police officer does not arrest someone for spitting in their face, the next time there is a confrontation that person is likely to punch an officer in the face, and the time after that stab them in the ribs. We support the Bill.