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Human Trafficking

May I say what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Bercow? I know the frustration that you will be feeling sitting in the Chair, rather than being allowed to contribute to the debate, as the hon. Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) said. I know that you have firm views on the subject, and that you will be following proceedings with the utmost diligence and interest. May I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), the Liaison Committee and others on securing the debate? It has been a discussion as much as a debate. As hon. Members have said, the important thing is for us to raise the issues and to consider how we make progress. My hon. Friend the Member for Hendon, as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris), my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) and other members of the Committee have made a significant contribution to the development of policy. It is sometimes said that Select Committee reports gather dust and do not actually make any difference. The hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon, as well as other hon. Friends and hon. Members on the Committee, should know that the fact that the Committee called me before it, raised certain questions and challenged the Government—not in a nasty, sneering way, but in an intellectual and emotional but fair way—made a huge difference to the way in which the whole debate was looked at and is, if I may say so without going over the top, a great tribute to them. Alongside that was the massive contribution that other hon. Members made. I pay particular tribute to the hon. Member for Totnes. He made some kind remarks about me, which was nice of him. I understand perfectly the challenge that these debates and discussions present. I pay tribute to the work that he has done and to the passionate way in which he continues to raise this issue. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but if I was to deliver him the policy of his dreams, he would try to have an Adjournment debate the next day, saying that it was not enough. I mean that as a compliment. He is continually challenging us and at the heart of what he is saying is the desire to do as much as he can for exploited children in this and many other countries. I also pay tribute to campaigners such as Chris Beddoe and Kate Allen and to all the non-governmental organisations that, as we know from our postbags, play a huge role in campaigning to force these issues on to the agenda. That is particularly important, because they are sometimes regarded as fringe issues outside mainstream politics, and not the meat of government or—to be frank to the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Mr. Garnier)—of opposition. They are seen as the sort of issues that a few well-meaning people are concerned about, but which do not capture the British public’s imagination. In fact, what NGOs have done, and are still doing effectively, is to awaken something very deep in the British people. They are demanding that we all do something about this issue, which is a great credit to them. The way in which the Government have tried to respond is a credit to everybody involved. This issue is tied up with modern-day slavery, the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of slavery’s abolition, and so on, but the public are now saying, ““This is an absolute outrage. It is morally repugnant.”” Virtually every person in the country wants something to be done about it. What people really want is not policies but a magic wand. They want trafficking to end. I do not want to sound like Victor Meldrew, but we are all suffering from the ““I can’t believe it happens”” syndrome. The hon. Member for Totnes talked about child trafficking, the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon mentioned women being trafficked for sexual exploitation and other hon. Members have mentioned labour exploitation. We saw that only too tragically and awfully on our television screens a couple of weeks ago, when a brilliant piece of investigative journalism exposed what is going on. We all want to see an end to it, and today’s debate is about how we achieve that. The action plan exists because of all the points that I have just made. It is not just a nicely bound document with ““Home Office”” and ““The Scottish Executive”” on the front, but a living document. It is designed to try to do something about all those issues that people demand we do something about, and we want to see it put into practice. I shall deal with some of the specific questions that were raised in a moment, but I should point out now that an inter-ministerial group will review progress on the action plan and consider whether it has been effective. It will also look at education, which hon. Members asked about. A further ministerial group that I chair, along with the Solicitor-General, involves stakeholders who were instrumental in putting the action plan together. However, the judgment as to whether the action plan has been effective will not be made by those formal groups; it will be based on testimonies as to whether the reality to which the hon. Member for Totnes rightly referred has changed, and whether we have managed to deliver an environment in which more people are prosecuted for trafficking, more victims are supported, more places are available and children are not disappearing. Those are the measures of the action plan’s effectiveness that we would all want to use. If we can achieve those aims, we will not have simply a document called ““UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking””, which, in itself, is a great achievement for us all; rather, we will have a document that means something in communities throughout the country, and which will make a real difference to potential victims. In the end, that is what the judgment will be and, frankly, what it should be. As I start to answer hon. Members’ questions, some people will agree and some will disagree with the points that I make. However, let us start from the fact, which hon. Members were generous enough to state, that this Parliament and this Government, working with others—including the various stakeholders and the public—have put together a document that people would not even have understood the purpose of four, three or even two years ago. We should realise the difference that has been made and judge how far we can make progress by looking at what happens outside this place. A difference has indeed been made, but we need to carry on. Following that peroration, if I should call it that—