The Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee's call for evidence on Emergency Workers (Scotland) Bill

The UNISON Scotland Response. May 2004

Executive summary

UNISON Scotland is pleased to be able to respond to the Justice 1 Committee's call for evidence on the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Bill.

It is the view of UNISON Scotland that violence and the threat of violence at work is entirely unacceptable. As such we warmly welcome the commitment of Scottish Ministers to take action in this area by introducing both legislative and non-legislative measures to protect workers.

However, we believe that the Bill in its current form has too narrow a focus. UNISON Scotland regrets that the Executive has not seen fit to enact legislation which would offer all public service workers, not only those whom it considers emergency workers, the same level of legal protection.

UNISON Scotland believes that an attack on any member of staff who delivers a public service should be treated under the law as a serious assault, not just attacks on emergency workers.

UNISON Scotland believes that the risks faced by public service workers in both emergency and non-emergency situations are fundamentally the same. We believe that any attempt to make a distinction between assaulting a public service worker in an emergency situation and assaulting one in a non-emergency situation to be illusory.

In addition, UNISON Scotland is disappointed at the Executive's failure to introduce a statutory aggravation charge (replacing common law aggravation) to cover attacks on all workers delivering a public service.

Introduction

UNISON is Scotland's largest public sector trade union representing 150,000 members. Across Scotland UNISON members save lives, build communities, support families, protect vulnerable people, care for children and much more.

Increasingly this essential work is being done in the face of a threat - the threat of violent attacks. UNISON Scotland takes the view that this type of behaviour is unacceptable in any context, but it is particularly unacceptable that valued public services workers should have to face this threat in the course of their employment.

Therefore, as users of public services, as public service workers and as ordinary citizens our membership has a direct interest in commenting on and helping to shape legislation, which is designed to protect emergency and public service workers in Scotland from physical assault.

This paper constitutes UNISON Scotland's response to the Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee's call for evidence on the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Bill.

Comments

Workers covered by the Bill

UNISON Scotland welcomes the Scottish Executive's commitment to tackle the issue of violence against emergency workers through legislation and the acknowledgement of the need to extend protection to others assisting them in emergency situations.

However, UNISON Scotland also believes the proposed legislation to be too narrow in focus and regrets that the Executive has not seen fit to enact legislation which would offer all public service workers the same level of legal protection, not only those whom the Executive considers emergency workers.

UNISON Scotland is concerned that the proposed legislation will fail to provide adequate legal protection for all public service workers and that it will instead create unequal levels of legal protection for emergency workers and important non-emergency public service workers alike.

We believe that in practice it is impossible to make a distinction between the risks faced by an emergency worker (as defined by the Bill) and a non-emergency worker such as a social worker or a home care worker.

UNISON Scotland believes that an attack on any member of staff who delivers a public service should be treated under the law as a serious assault, not just attacks on emergency workers.

Defining an emergency situation

UNISON Scotland believes that the emphasis of the new legislation should be on the activities the victim was conducting at the time of an assault, not on whether these activities were conducted during an emergency or non-emergency situation.

UNISON members, who are employed throughout Scotland's public services, can testify that threats, abuse, assault and fear of such incidents have become a permanent and regular feature of their working lives.

We are of the opinion that the risks faced by public service workers in both emergency and non-emergency situations are fundamentally the same. We believe that any attempt to make a distinction between assaulting a public service worker in an emergency situation and assaulting one in a non-emergency situation to be illusory.

In addition, the proposed Bill makes special provision for health workers in hospital A&E departments. This provision stipulates that a state of emergency is to be considered to exist at all times in such departments.

The experience on the ground in many of our hospitals is that patients are regularly admitted directly to a ward, by-passing A&E altogether. In this situation, a patients first point of contact with hospital staff is at the ward level, not at A&E level, yet under the proposed Bill the hospital ward would not be considered an emergency location and would not be subject to the same provisions under law.

UNISON Scotland believes this to be nonsensical and believes that within our hospitals there should be no artificial division drawn between A&E departments and the rest of the hospital.

Statutory aggravation

UNISON Scotland is disappointed at the Executive's failure to introduce a statutory aggravation charge (replacing common law aggravation) to cover attacks on all workers delivering a public service. We do not agree with the Executive's assertion that the introduction of a statutory aggravation offence to cover attacks on public service workers would weaken protection for such workers.

We believe the Executives fears over the potential loss of flexibility and the possibility of aggravated charges not being proceeded with under statute because they do not fit a restrictive statutory template, to be ill-founded.

It is the opinion of UNISON Scotland that the dropping of a statutory aggravation charge may actually be less of a risk in the proposed new offence. This is because the aggravating factor for assault on a public service worker is factual i.e. the identity of the victim and the capacity in which they were working at the time. The offence could also be made one of strict liability and thus arguably easier to prove.

Wider measures

UNISON Scotland believes that whilst tougher sentencing will provide a useful disincentive, more proactive measures to reduce risk and prevent harm are similarly important in maximising protection for workers.

As such, UNISON Scotland welcomes the Executive's commitment to introduce a wider package of non-legislative measures designed to protect those who serve the public. We are pleased that these measures will include initiatives to educate the public and to reinforce the message that attacks on public service and other workers are totally unacceptable.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Matt Smith, Scottish Secretary
UNISONScotland
UNISON House
14, West Campbell Street,
Glasgow G2 6RX

Tel 0141-332 0006 Fax 0141 342 2835

e-mail matt.smith@unison.co.uk