Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, it is a temptation for someone who, I suspect, is speaking last before the Minister in a debate such as this to take on the arguments with which I disagree. I am going to reject that temptation, which many noble Lords will be glad of. The Government made some good progress on these clauses while the Bill passed through another place and listened to concerns about the drafting of the definition of "coercion". However, I have been both surprised and disappointed that they continue to maintain their position on strict liability, as I suspect they will do again tonight. I will, therefore, support the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, in her amendments within this group to remove the strict liability aspect of the new offence, as my noble friend Lady Hanham did in Committee. Underlying this debate is the fact that all noble Lords in this House understand fully the Government’s desire and society’s need to act against trafficking and forced prostitution. My noble friend Lady O’Cathain was absolutely spot on in making that point. This horrific trade in humans must be stopped and I would fully support any measure that would improve the chances of prosecuting those who knowingly—I underline the word—pay for sex with a coerced woman. My noble friend Lord McColl and the most reverend Primate made in part the same point, which is that the man concerned in the transaction must assure himself that he is not about to pay for sex with a trafficked or exploited woman. How easy it is to say, but how difficult to achieve. If someone asks a prostitute whether she has been trafficked, the inevitable answer will be "No". If she is being exploited, the inevitable answer will be "No", because otherwise the pimp or whoever will come down on her like a ton of bricks and the woman will be even more frightened than she is already. I side with those who do not believe that the offence as drafted in the Bill would achieve the objective that we all want to see. Also, I do not believe that it would lead to a cultural shift among men who frequent prostitutes, as the Minister appears to believe that it would. In Committee, he argued that these amendments would allow men to get away with the sort of behaviour that we all want to stop because they could say that they did not know the circumstances of the prostitute. However, this argument has been challenged again tonight by many noble Lords far more learned in the law than I am, and I am glad that we have heard from them. We are about to hear what the Minister has to say. I suspect, as I said earlier, that he will maintain that this absolute offence of strict liability will do the job. I am afraid to tell him that, from my point of view, it will not.