Policing and Crime Bill

The House is anxious to hear the statement, and I understand that. [Interruption.] If I do not speak, someone else will, so there is no choice. I am talking about an important matter. Hon. Members will have been lobbied about the Government's proposal for a strict liability offence that meant that paying for sex with a prostitute controlled for gain will be a criminal offence whether or not the person was aware, or should have been aware, that the prostitute was controlled for gain. The fundamental problem with that approach is that the penalty for someone who is aware that they are having sex with a trafficked or coerced woman will be a maximum fine of £1,000. The offence that I am talking about is akin to rape. It cannot be right that the Government's provisions fail to capture a person who goes on to have sex with someone, against their will, who they know has been trafficked and coerced. It is clear that that person cannot be prosecuted or convicted for rape. The Minister could provide no examples of where rape prosecution would work in the context of prostitution. New clause 25, which is supported by official Opposition Front Benchers, Liberal Democrats and Back Benchers on both sides of the House, would provide for an offence that would suitably punish people in that respect. After the Speaker's statement, I will set out why the Government's approach is wrong and ours is right. This amendment is supported not only by those who work in prostitution but by health service workers such as those in the Royal College of Nursing, who voted by 10 to one during their last conference to oppose deeper criminalisation of the vulnerable people working in prostitution. It is supported by organisations such as Justice and Liberty, which recognise that it is fundamentally against people's human rights to be hit with a strict liability offence that criminalises them, particularly in a private matter. Debate interrupted.