My Lords, we have clearly got to find a way forward. As my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe has just briefly and succinctly said, the question is whether it fits better into this Bill or into the anti-slavery Bill.
There is no more despicable thing than to exploit a child. One’s mind goes back to when I had the great good fortune in 1982 to be commissioned to write a short life of William Wilberforce to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death and the 155th anniversary of the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions in 1983. In researching that book I became
totally convinced that William Wilberforce was indeed the greatest Back-Bencher in our history. He was a man who never held office of any sort and yet campaigned brilliantly and persistently over decades, first, to achieve the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and then, over a quarter of a century later, the abolition of slavery itself. He heard the news of the passing of that Bill as he lay dying in his home.
That of course did not end the sort of social evils against which he had campaigned, and we all remember Fagin, the fictional character of Dickens, and how Mr Brownlow came to the rescue of Oliver Twist. We also remember the writings of Henry Mayhew in the articles under the heading, “London Labour and the London Poor”. I often think that we could do with a Mayhew and a Dickens today to point the moral and adorn the tale, as it were, by graphically describing the sort of evils to which my noble friend Lord McColl, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and the noble Baroness, Lady Royall of Blaisdon, have referred during the debate.
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The question for me is one of practicality. That guardians of some sort are needed is, I think, beyond dispute. It is about whether they should form part of this Bill or the anti-slavery Bill, precisely how they should be recruited and precisely how they should operate. I look forward to what the Minister has to say on these. We have in this country an army of foster parents from whom, surely, the sort of guardians to which my noble friend Lord McColl referred could possibly be recruited. We also have a lay magistracy that sets a wonderful example of voluntary service of the highest order to the community. Perhaps guardians could be recruited from its ranks. I have to say that I find the amendment immensely long and somewhat complex and complicated, but I salute and admire those who have tabled it for the care and thought that has clearly gone into it.
What I hope will come out of this debate is a response from my noble friend Lord Taylor of Holbeach that will convince us beyond any peradventure that the Government are indeed determined to tackle the evil practice of child trafficking. It is evil and no other word can be used for it. We have had graphic examples not only from Rochdale in this country, but also from Austria and the United States, of those who have imprisoned people and used and abused them as slaves in the worst possible manner. We have got to tackle such foul abuse. My noble friend has already shown himself in a number of amendments to the Bill to be a listening and responsive Minister, so I hope that he can give us a reassurance today. Perhaps the answer is for the Minister to say that, having consulted the proposers of this amendment, he will introduce an amendment at Third Reading which can command the support of the Government and the House. If he goes down that road, I for one would be content. But if he is not able to give the sort of reassuring answer for which I am looking, like many of your Lordships, I will be placed in a difficult position. That the evil is there we all know, and that it must be rooted out we all agree. It is a question of the manner and the method, not of the matter, which we all condone.