I am happy to move the motion before us today on the LCM, the legislative consent motion, relating to the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill.

I feel that many of us are regularly shocked by the continued reports of emergency workers being attacked both verbally and physically whilst they are fulfilling their already demanding roles that are of such great value to all of our communities across Wales.

Chris Bryant, the Member of Parliament for the Rhondda, has introduced his private Members' Bill to provide additional protection to those emergency workers. That Bill was introduced on 19 July 2017 and it enjoys cross-party support. Interestingly, in introducing his Bill he's undertaken a wider consultation encouraging members of the public to vote for the potential options if he was drawn in the ballot. More than 10,700 responded directly. Both in the UK consultation and also the very local Rhondda consultation, this particular Bill topped the poll as to the proposal to take forward. It also had the support of more than 145,000 petitioners online. So, the Bill enjoys widespread support and I certainly hope it will receive the support of all parties in the Chamber today.   

The Bill as drafted extends and applies to England and Wales and it would strengthen the law by creating a new aggravated version of the existing offence of common assault or battery when committed against an emergency worker. The maximum penalty would therefore increase from six to 12 months imprisonment. It would also create a statutory aggravating factor for other assaults and related offences against emergency workers, such as actual bodily harm, gross bodily harm and manslaughter. That aggravating factor would merit a more severe sentence but does not increase existing maximum penalties for those offences.

It would also extend police powers to take blood samples with consent, and non-intimate samples without consent, from individuals who assault emergency workers when an inspector has reasonable grounds to believe that the emergency worker has been exposed to a risk of transmission of an infectious disease. That proposal is intended to reduce the number of emergency workers who sadly have to undergo a blood test themselves and take prophylactic medicine sometimes unnecessarily. That will provide emergency workers with faster and greater certainty about whether they have potentially contracted an infectious disease.

The Bill defines emergency workers to include the police, National Crime Agency workers, prison and custody officers and fire services, rescue service workers and NHS workers in public-facing roles. Of course, a number of those are in devolved areas. I would like to thank both the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee for their work and their conclusion that they too have no objection to today's motion. Some of the services in the Bill do fall outside devolved competence, but others—as I said, fire and rescue in particular, the rescue service and NHS workers—are devolved. I'd ask Members across parties today to support the motion, so the provisions will therefore ensure that Welsh emergency workers will be afforded the same protection as emergency workers in England, and on the same timescales. I hope that Members will rapidly agree today's motion and bring proceedings to a close.