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Coroners and Justice Bill

I was pleased that I was able to speak at Second Reading and in Committee on these issues and was able to accompany my noble friend when she went to see the noble Lord, Lord Bach, to raise these important questions about servitude and forced labour. She has done Parliament a great service in the persistent way in which she has gone about this. But I should also like to pay tribute to the Government. In the first instance, they did not accept that there was necessarily a case to be made or answered about the scale of this problem. Their acceptance was as a result of my noble friend bringing before them specific examples of abuses that had occurred and the failure of existing offences to deal with those abuses. That was the genesis of the amendment that is being drafted for Third Reading. If it had not been for my noble friend’s determination and the courteous way in which she went about it, we would not be at this happy juncture today. At a moment when Parliament perhaps is held in rather low esteem in many quarters, it is as well to remind ourselves of our real purpose in both these Houses. It shows admirable determination, and the purpose of Parliament, when someone sees such a shameful injustice as people being held against their will and exploited in this manner. When that Member is able to get some minor injustice put right, that is the greatest justification for our being here.