Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by John Bercow (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 16 February 2006 on behalf of the Minister for Women.

Human Trafficking

Question: The hon. Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh) is absolutely right. The Council of Europe convention on human trafficking was agreed in May 2005, and no fewer than 24 of the council's 46 members have signed up to it. Therefore, will the Minister tell the House what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary in respect of why the Government still feel unable to sign up to the convention, which would provide minimum standards of protection and treatment for all trafficked people?

Answer: The ongoing discussions on this matter are very detailed. The UK took a lead and made human trafficking one of the key issues of our EU presidency. We are enormously concerned about it, and are consulting on our UK action plan. As I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh), we are looking at this issue. We consider every case on its merits, and women are given time to reflect. Our concern is that an automatic period may act as a pull factor in a way that would be unhelpful to real victims. However, there is no end date for the period in which the UK can sign up to the convention. That is under active consideration, and many other measures are in place to deal with the terrible problem of human trafficking. We are having great success in finding the people involved in it, stopping it happening, and dealing appropriately with the victims.

Secondary information