Policing and Crime Bill

The amendment has been proposed by the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and Justice. It would exempt children from the offence of loitering or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution. The Government have repeatedly stated that involving children in prostitution is a form of child abuse, so it would be regrettable if they did not abolish the power to prosecute a child over the age of 10 for offences under Section 1 of the Street Offences Act 1959, which the Bill amends. We are not convinced by the Government’s explanation of the continuing need for the criminalisation of children involved in prostitution. I shall give the Minister an example of that in a moment. That explanation is in direct opposition to the conclusions of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. In particular, we are not persuaded by the assertion that the criminal justice system may be needed to enable children to access support. The provision of revised guidance is insufficient to address our central points of concern, and we recommend that the Government reconsider their opposition to decriminalising children involved in prostitution. We certainly think that children and young people have the right to be protected from all forms of sexual exploitation, and we heard earlier from the right reverend Prelate about the sexualisation of children. We have heard several times in briefings about the increase in all forms of exploitation of children, paedophile rings and many worrying things. Surely the answer is not to leave the victims—the children—criminalised, which is what the Bill proposes. In 2005-06, Barnardo’s sexual exploitation services worked with 2,148 young people aged between 12 and 24. Research undertaken in 2005 indicated that as many as 1,000 young people in London alone were at risk of, or involved in, exploitation. We accept that it is a big problem. Research shows that children likely to be most at risk of sexual exploitation are those who have had a disrupted family life, have been in care, which is certainly a risk, have had a history of abuse or disadvantage, or are runaways. The sexual exploitation of children takes many forms that may include formal prostitution, but it has only relatively recently been recognised that children and young people who would once have been referred to as child prostitutes should be seen and treated as abused children in need of care and protection. Our amendment seeks to build on that recognition by removing the fact that children can still be prosecuted. The Minister will say that the number of children aged under 18 who have been prosecuted under Section 1 of the Street Offences Act is extremely low—just one prosecution and two cautions in 2005—but that is an argument to remove it from the statute book. If it is not much used, but it still criminalises children for something when they should be seen as the victim, that is a stronger argument for removing it. Britain had an appalling report from UNICEF on the state of children in this country. We must constantly bear it in mind that we should be improving their position. When the Bill was discussed in the other place, the Minister, Alan Campbell, in refuting the idea of decriminalising under-18s, said that, ""decriminalising under-18s would risk sending out a message that we do not think it is acceptable for adults to be involved in street prostitution but that somehow it is acceptable for a child or young person to loiter or solicit for the purposes of prostitution. If one child is deterred from getting involved in prostitution because they would be at risk of breaking the law that would justify our position".—[Official Report, Commons, 19/5/09; col. 1414.]" We refute absolutely that that is a logical or reasonable position to take. It demonstrates a completely flawed understanding of the situation in which children who are sexually exploited find themselves. They do not choose to be involved; they have landed in a situation because they are vulnerable, have no money, are homeless or people have preyed on them. They need care. We cannot continue criminalising in this way those who are under 18. I beg to move.