Policing and Crime Bill

For the Government to rely on the assertion that reversing the criminalisation of children who are victims of exploitation sends out such a message, evidence must be provided, because the evidence base is on the other side. Similarly, a Minister has argued that pimps will seek out child prostitutes because they will not be arrested and therefore be a shelter from the law, but that also has no evidence behind it. However, the issue underpins the importance of concentrating police and criminal justice efforts at the pimps, traffickers and exploiters rather than further criminalising the vulnerable people. Furthermore, I do not believe that children or older women would be forced into street prostitution and encouraged to lie about their ages. Pimps already encourage their prostitutes to lie—that is the nature of pimping. If the new clause is agreed to, we can protect children, and that is critical. Many hon. Members are here, and I make a plea to them. When new clause 4 is moved at the end of the debate at 9 pm, as I hope it will be, I ask them to listen to the likes of JUSTICE, the NSPCC, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Children's Rights Alliance for England and to say, "Enough is enough. It is time to do what the Government undertook to do during the passage of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008." The Minister for Children, Young People and Families said as she gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights that child prostitutes are always victims and never criminals. It is time to support new clause 4 on that basis. The case has been made overwhelmingly, even before we consider the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.