If I had longer I would list a huge number of women’s organisations, campaign groups and those dealing with the issue that the Bill is supposed to be addressing—human trafficking—that support dealing with demand for prostitution, as that is also a way of dealing with demand for modern slavery. We have dealt with demand in terms of the transparency of supply chains and have sought to deal with the demand for cheap goods that are linked to modern slavery. Similarly, we should deal with the demand linked to trafficking, which includes prostitution.
5.45 pm
The collectives and campaign groups make a big noise, but I want to speak up for the voiceless. Those who I saw in my 20 years’ experience of prostitution—I hasten to add that I was a criminal defence solicitor—in the cells at Haringey magistrates court were sad and pathetic in the true sense. They were usually exploited and abused, and usually addicted to drugs. More often than not, they were no doubt trafficked. I want to speak up for them—those people who sadly commodified their bodies. Yes, we need to do more than legislate. We need to deal with the issue of sex culturally and put it properly in the context of mutual love and relationships, rather than it involving commodifying a body for gratification.
We are concerned about that, but the Bill is about modern slavery, and we should not dismiss the link between the demand for prostitution and trafficking. We recognised that in 2009 and crossed the Rubicon—we recognised the principle of legislating to criminalise people paying for sex when people are subject to force. We need to consider how we evaluate that. At the end of the day, without addressing the factors that drive demand for trafficking, including trafficking for exploitation, we will struggle to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating modern slavery in this country.