Call for views on the
Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Bill
We would like to hear
your views on the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted
Goods and Services) (Scotland)
Bill.
Let us know your views by 31 January 2020.
Before making a submission, please read our privacy notice about submitting your views to a Committee. This tells you about how we process your personal information.
Please note that in most
cases your written submission will be published on the Scottish Parliament’s
website and may be quoted in the Committee’s report or in Committee meetings
(which are public and broadcast).
The Bill aims to increase
protection for retail workers by:
·
creating a new statutory offence of assaulting,
threatening, abusing, obstructing or hindering a retail worker, and
·
creating a statutory aggravation to that offence
where the retail worker is enforcing a statutory age restriction.
This is a Member's Bill and was
introduced by Daniel Johnson MSP on 10 October 2019. The
Bill and accompanying documents are available on the Scottish Parliament’s
website.
We would like to hear your views on the
following questions – but you don’t need to respond to them all:
1. What are your views on the Bill and what impact will it have?
2. Having regard to existing offences (e.g. common law assault), is there a need for a new statutory offence of assaulting, threatening, abusing, obstructing or hindering a retail worker?
3. What are the potential benefits or problems in having such an offence?
4. Should any new offence include all of the elements proposed in the Bill (e.g. should obstructing or hindering a retail worker be a crime, as is already the case in relation to various providers of emergency services)?
5. Is the focus on retail workers appropriate (e.g. is it too narrow in not covering other workers who may, because of their work, be vulnerable to abusive behaviour)?
6. What difference will the proposed aggravation, where the enforcement of a statutory age restriction is involved, make?
7. What are the financial implications of the proposals?
8. What other action is or should be taken to protect retail and other workers?
9. Are there any other aspects of the Bill you would like to comment on?
The closing date for receipt of submissions is Friday 31 January 2020. Submissions may be accepted after this date; please contact the Committee if you wish to request more time.
Your response does not need to cover all the areas specified and can
focus on those that are relevant to you or your organisation. You are also
welcome to provide other information that you feel would be relevant.
The Committee welcomes responses to the questions above. Please use the template provided. Written responses should be sent
electronically in Word format (not PDF) to the following address:
[email protected]
We encourage members of underrepresented groups to submit evidence. We also welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language. Due to the time required to process and analyse evidence, late submissions will only be accepted with the agreement of the Committee.
Please also note that submissions with defamatory content, references to ongoing court cases or third parties’ personal information will not be published online.
If you wish to request that your submission be published without your name, please contact us ([email protected] or 0131 348 5403).
If you cannot submit electronically you may send in a hard copy written submission to:
Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee
Room T3.40
Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh EH99 1SP