UK Borders Bill

My Lords, despite my resistance to this amendment, which will become clear, I sincerely welcome the debate as a helpful opportunity to outline the Government's approach on the issue of trafficking. I think it usefully supplements early debates we have had on the issue and the debate that was initiated by the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh. As noble Lords have expressed clearly, human trafficking is an appalling and obscene crime which causes terrible trauma to its victims and can have a lasting impact on them. That is why, as well as using this Bill to strengthen existing trafficking offences, the Government are paying scrupulous attention to their responsibilities regarding victims of trafficking. The Government are committed to help identify victims of this awful crime and the publishing of the UK action plan and the signing of the European convention on action against trafficking by the Home Secretary on 23 March demonstrate our continued commitment. This is further reinforced by the establishment of a dedicated project team to lead implementation of the convention and by a continuing police-led multi-agency operation—Pentameter 2. This operation focuses on rescuing victims of sex trafficking and identifying, disrupting, arresting and bringing to justice those involved in this criminal activity. It will also enable us to gather intelligence on other forms of trafficking and will provide an opportunity to pilot some elements of the convention, including a process of victim identification. These are significant steps towards our goal of making the UK a hostile place for traffickers. In order to aid practitioners and raise awareness of trafficking, the Home Office has developed an online toolkit. Training on identifying and handling potential victims has been provided throughout the regional enforcement offices. We have also provided staff with guidance to identify victims of trafficking at the earliest stage. The UK Human Trafficking Centre has been running awareness-raising sessions for front-line staff and a Border and Immigration Agency trafficking network has been established to help co-ordinate activity in this area. Specialist training has been provided by the Border and Immigration Agency for around 600 operational members of staff nationwide to support the identification of children in need. That is a significant number of officers working in that field. In reaching a decision to pursue repatriation of an individual, consideration is given to our obligations under the immigration laws and the Human Rights Act, including any risk that they might face on return or other reasons why they should be allowed to remain in the United Kingdom. The Government recognise that there will be individuals who have suffered exploitation at the hands of their traffickers and that they need time to recover and reflect on their personal circumstances. That is why during Pentameter 2 we are piloting a reflection and recovery period of a minimum of 30 days for those who are identified as victims of trafficking. This is essentially piloting aspects of Articles 10 and 13 of the Council of Europe convention, which is recognised and generally reflected in subsections (5) and (6) which noble Lords have already covered in discussion. Where appropriate to do so, permission to remain in the UK may be granted on either a limited or indefinite basis. As I am sure noble Lords appreciate, each case has to be assessed on its merits and repatriation will only be considered where it is considered safe and, more importantly, appropriate to do so. In relation to proposed subsections (6) and (7), we have always said that we are wholly sympathetic to the objectives behind the Council of Europe convention. The convention will build on our strategy to combat human trafficking by providing minimum standards of protection and victim support. With the UK Human Trafficking Centre we are establishing a lead in Europe in training police in best detection techniques. UNICEF has already praised our efforts in this regard. The centre will become a central point for the development of police expertise and operational cooperation. I can say to the House that good progress has also been made on the implementation of the UK action plan against trafficking. A plan to implement the Council of Europe convention has been submitted to the inter-ministerial group on trafficking. A scoping report on the extent of child trafficking was published by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre on 11th June. The FCO has disseminated information to posts on recent UK convictions for trafficking for use in local media. Entry clearance officers in source and transit countries have been trained in trafficking awareness. Other work on the action plan is, of course, continuing. Despite that progress, it will still take some time before we move from signature of the convention to ratification. Before ratification, we as a Government are committed to implementing it fully and in accordance with its ongoing strategy on trafficking. Some of the other signatories to the convention have legal systems that allow or require ratification before implementation. Ours does not. We operate in a different way. The need for wide consultation and limited secondary and primary legislation, including in the devolved Administrations, means that ratification will take time—longer than we would ideally like—but that does not prevent implementation of parts of the convention, nor does it disturb our determination to tackle this issue and deliver on our wider trafficking strategy. We want to ratify as soon as possible, but we are determined to ensure that we get the arrangements right before doing so. The Government largely share my noble friend’s intentions, but not the timing of the provision. It would be premature to accept the amendment. My noble friend Lord Judd asked what has happened to the action plan over the summer. Plans on both the implementation of the convention and the action plan are submitted on a regular basis to the interdepartmental ministerial group. Noble Lords will be aware that there has been some publicity surrounding progress. The next meeting of that group is due in November. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, suggested that the immigration Minister should report back to Parliament on the progress of the action plan and the implementation of the convention. The Government are committed to sharing progress on the action plan and the convention, as I said, by giving regular reports back from the inter-departmental ministerial group. We will give active consideration to other reporting mechanisms that we can find that will enable us to ensure that the issue is kept at the forefront of public consideration.