Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I, too, have added my name to this amendment. I very much support what the noble Baroness, Lady Young, has done. It is greatly to her credit that she has pursued this. I have come rather late to see how important it is that this gap should be covered. I should declare two interests. One is that I am a vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Trafficking. Trafficked women, in particular, are part of those who are put into forced servitude. I have also just become the mother of the acting-chairman of Liberty—I mean that I am the mother of the recently appointed acting-chairman. Your Lordships will understand my putting it the wrong way around. I thought I should declare that as an interest. My point is that the amendment as it stands produces at trial, instead of at summary justice, two possible sentences of 14 years and seven years. I can see that there are objections to that and I am very happy with the various proposals put forward by the Minister at the meeting I attended earlier. It is a serious matter and the punishment should fit the crime. Therefore, the Government, in looking at the appropriate punishment, should go high rather than low.