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Human Trafficking

I should, of course, add my hon. Friend to the list of those to whom I pay tribute, because the all-party group on trafficking of women and children, which he chairs, has done important work on this matter. I hope that the Government take his warning well. As well as ratification, the Conservatives want to see action on policing, prosecutions and the protection of victims. One year on, the Government have set up what they call a border service, but it is not a border police force. Various specific police operations, such as Pentameter 1 and Pentameter 2, have taken place, but there has been underlying confusion about the overlapping role of the various police departments that deal with trafficking. Amid the plethora of Government targets for which the police must have regard, there has been an absence of one on this matter. On Monday, my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) asked"““why human trafficking is not core police business””." The Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing replied: ““It is.””—[Official Report, 14 January 2007; Vol. 470, c. 640.] This depends on how one defines core police business, because police forces are in no way rewarded for any work they do in this field. We know that because the chief superintendent of Peterborough police, Mr. Phillipson, has said:"““There are no Home Office targets for this kind of police work””." He continued:"““This is rape and sexual abuse, happening on a daily basis, but it is unreported crime. I won't achieve any reduction in crime statistics by closing brothels…But, quite frankly, I don't care. As far as I'm concerned this is what police work is about and I know that it's the right thing to do.””" I am inclined to believe the policeman on the front line more perhaps than the Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing—