My Lords, I rise to support Amendment 31 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord McColl. First, I must offer my apologies to noble Lords that I was not able to be here for the Second Reading debate.
Trafficking of human beings is the worst form of commodification that there can be. It is a process that views a person as an object to be used to make profit, with no thought to the dignity and humanity of the
person being exploited. Perhaps that commodification is expressed most starkly in sexual exploitation where a person’s body is purchased and used for the gratification of the buyer.
It is not sufficient to tackle trafficking and slavery by trying to increase the number of prosecutions for those offences, however vital that is. If we are truly to bring an end to slavery in the 21st century, some 200 years after abolishing legal slavery, we must look to address the root causes. We must not be shy of tackling difficult issues and making bold laws. The connection between prostitution and trafficking is one area where new thinking is required. I commend the noble Lord, Lord McColl, for being bold enough to ask the question of what we will do to reduce the opportunities for traffickers to profit from commercial sexual exploitation.
I should like to focus my comments on some of the arguments that are often made against proposals such as those contained in Amendment 31 and explain why I believe they are unconvincing. The first is the underground thesis. Those who oppose this approach to prostitution law regularly use one particular argument, suggesting that criminalising the purchasing of sexual services could drive prostitution underground, putting prostitutes at risk of harm and making it more difficult for them to seek help. At first sight this idea would be of great concern since the intention of the clause is to protect those in prostitution. However, on closer examination, these fears are not borne out.
First, prostitution can never entirely go underground. It is a system that requires buyers. Without buyers, prostitution will collapse. Therefore, those involved in or who control others in prostitution need to advertise publicly in some way. We already see this in local newspapers or on the internet. However the law changes, this connection with buyers still needs to be made, and if the average client can find an advert for sexual services, then so can the police. This underground argument has also been refuted strongly by the evaluation of the laws in Sweden and Norway.
The next argument that is often put up is concern about the impact on safety. The second part of this opposing argument suggests that it will make prostitution more dangerous. But the truth is that prostitution is already dangerous. Indeed, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ strategic guidance refers to research findings that people in prostitution are 60 to 120 times more likely to be victims of murder than the general population and also experience high levels of rape and physical assault. A paper produced for the Northern Ireland Department of Justice in 2011 states that many women in prostitution in Northern Ireland are subjected to extreme violence. A 2008 prostitution inquiry conducted in Sweden established that the claims made by opponents there about a worsening situation were baseless. Data from Norway show a decrease in severe violence against those in prostitution. The recent evaluation of the Norwegian law states that researchers did,
“not find any evidence of more violence against prostitutes after the ban on buying sex entered into force”.
Many opponents of the Nordic laws promote the decriminalisation model implemented in New Zealand. However, when they do they fail to acknowledge that
the official review of that law heard that even five years after removal of all criminal sanctions relating to prostitution of adults, individuals still reported experiencing violence and fear. There is simply no way to get around the fact that prostitution is an inherently violent and harmful activity.
I must say that I agree with the Canadian Justice Minister, Peter MacKay, who said:
“The government does not accept the proposition that prostitution is inevitable and therefore that we must decriminalize and regulate it … On the contrary, the government maintains that prostitution’s inherent harms and dangers would only grow and be exacerbated in a regime that perpetrates and condones the exploitation of vulnerable individuals through legalized prostitution”.
Many critics of this approach have stated that it conflates human trafficking and prostitution which should be kept separate. I do not believe that it is a credible argument that prostitution and trafficking should be treated entirely separately. The fact is that for a significant group of people trafficked into and within this country, the purpose of their trafficking is exploitation through prostitution. Of course, I accept that not all people in prostitution are trafficked, but without addressing the demand that makes it profitable for people to traffic others for prostitution, this trafficking will continue. The laws we have at the moment are not acting as a deterrent. In contrast, in Sweden, which criminalised the purchase of sexual services in 1999, police report that the law acts as,
“a barrier that is preventing human traffickers and pimps from becoming established in Sweden”.
Trafficking statistics show that Sweden has a lower rate of trafficking than other neighbouring countries. Given such statistics, as well as the research cited by the noble Lord, Lord McColl, about the particular vulnerability of the majority of women in prostitution, I think it is an entirely legitimate aim to seek to reduce demand for prostitution.
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Some other critics suggest that academic opinion is wholly opposed to the approach in the new clause. This is simply not the case. It is true that some in academia, generally those who view prostitution as a valid form of work, do not support such a model. However, other researchers state clearly that their research demonstrates the harm of prostitution, and they support a legal approach that would criminalise buyers of sexual services with the aim of reducing demand for prostitution. A group of 75 such researchers signed an open letter supporting the resolution proposing this form of law at the European Parliament.
There is therefore considerable international support. The noble Lord, Lord McColl, mentioned the resolution of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly from April this year, which followed an extensive investigation and report by José Mendes Bota, the rapporteur for the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination. I believe we would do well to consider that report seriously. After investigating the prostitution laws across Europe, some of which are vastly different from one another, Mr Mendes Bota came to the conclusion:
“While each system presents advantages and disadvantages, policies prohibiting the purchase of sexual services are those that are more likely to have a positive impact on reducing trafficking in human beings”.
Your Lordships may not be aware that my colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Morrow, is presently taking the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill through the Northern Ireland Assembly. In fact he is engaged on that Bill this very day. If I may be so bold I would suggest that the Northern Ireland Bill is in many ways more comprehensive than the Bill in front of us today, particularly with regard to aspects of Part 5 of this Bill. I very much hope that, through the work of noble Lords, we will be able to move this Bill closer to the example set by Northern Ireland.
In the particular matter of how to address the demand for prostitution that fuels trafficking, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted for a clause to criminalise the purchase of sexual services—the basis, I believe, for Amendment 31. At the key vote on 20 October the clause was supported by all the major parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly, right across the political divide. The Assembly supported the clause by 81 votes in favour to just 10 votes against. Last week we heard that the Government in the Republic of Ireland are preparing to introduce a similar law. As has been mentioned, the Canadian Government have passed a law on these lines in the past couple of months, and this kind of law has been endorsed in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
The approach to prostitution proposed in the noble Lord’s amendment is becoming the informed choice of western industrialised countries. It will shortly become law in one part of the United Kingdom and I believe that it deserves serious consideration in the other nations. I therefore support Amendments 31 and 31A.