Policing and Crime Bill

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. We are talking about extremely vulnerable people, regardless of whether they have been trafficked; the idea that they could be arrested rather than assisted by a police officer will be the driving force. The Standing Committee for Youth Justice also points out that research suggests that continuing to criminalise these young people in this way actively assists the controlling influence of those who exploit them. Obviously, pimps can exercise control over the children whom they pimp by saying, "If you cross me, I will report you to the police because what you do is criminal." The young people are not in a position to know the Minister's figures, which show that only one or two people have been prosecuted for such an offence in any given year; they are in a position to hear from the pimp that they are at risk of prosecution and had better toe the line. The literature recognises that point in respect of domestic child abuse. Such threats, even when not founded on statute, hold huge sway with vulnerable young people and children, yet the Government continue to ignore the research base. They make their own pronouncements without a shred of published evidence, or even the pretence of evidence, to back them. The Standing Committee for Youth Justice also tells us that fear of the police can result in young people taking health risks. Young people involved in commercial sexual exploitation are less likely to carry and use condoms. They fear that if they are found with them, that will give away the fact that they are on the game. That is a problem if we want to reduce harm. That is why there is so much pressure from human rights organisations and charities for the law to be changed. We thought that we had won the argument when, during the passage of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, the Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing acknowledged that children involved in sexual exploitation are victims and that he wished to give""a clear message that child sexual exploitation is a grave crime that will not be tolerated, and that the child is always a victim."––[Official Report, Criminal Justice and Immigration Public Bill Committee, 27 November 2007; c. 538.]" The child is not always the victim if on occasion they can be the criminal. It does not work for the Government to say that messages are sent out. This Minister has claimed that the decriminalisation of child prostitutes would send out a message that it was okay for children, but not adults, to be prostitutes. Again, that cannot be right without the evidence.