My Lords, I shall speak to the group of amendments that stand in my name, starting with Amendment 66A. As the noble Lord, Lord Warner, has already said, many of the amendments in this group and in subsequent groups are of a piece. There will therefore no doubt be some duplication in the comments that we make. We have already discussed issues related to the independence of the anti-slavery commissioner on previous amendments in Committee. None the less, I ask the leave of the House to repeat some of the points.
Two themes have been much repeated by the Government in connection with this Bill and their wider intentions in the fight against modern slavery: first, that the victims must be at the heart of the Bill in everything we do; secondly, that the Bill would make the United Kingdom a world leader in tackling modern slavery. Sadly, as it stands, the Bill does not live up to these aspirations. One way in which it falls short is in the provisions for the anti-slavery commissioner. Despite the addition of the word “independent” in the title, the commissioner currently has neither the independence nor the remit to be world leading. Moreover, Clause 41, which sets out the commissioner’s remit, has nothing to say about the protection and support of victims, as the noble Baroness, Lady Newlove, who was in her place just now, reminded us at Second Reading. Many noble Lords made these points at Second Reading. Leaving aside the Front Benchers, of the 29 speakers, 19 drew attention to the commissioner and among these, there was near unanimity that the Bill provided neither the requisite independence nor remit. Calls to address that came from across the House.
In opening the Second Reading debate, the Minister said:
“The commissioner’s role is set out in a similar way to other commissioners”.—[Official Report, 17/11/14; col. 239.]
I wonder: which other commissioners? Certainly, the role is not set out in a similar way to that of the Children’s Commissioner for England or that of her counterparts in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. These commissioners are not controlled by their respective government departments in the way that is done in the Bill, particularly in Clauses 41 and 42. Those clauses give power to the Home Secretary to edit the anti-slavery commissioner’s report and to approve, and by implication disapprove, his strategic plans. They also give similar powers to the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and to the Scottish Ministers.
The amendments to Clause 42 in my name give us an opportunity to consider these unusual restrictions on the commissioner. Amendments 72ZA, 72B, 72C, 73A, 74A, 74B, 74C and 74D would remove from the Home Secretary the role of approving the commissioner’s strategic plan. Surely, setting his own strategic plan, without interference or the need to have approval from the Home Secretary, is the least we should expect of an independent commissioner. Why does the Bill empower the Home Secretary to give or withhold approval for the commissioner’s strategic plan? How is such a power compatible with a truly independent commissioner? My Amendment 74E would remove the power given to the Home Secretary and her counterparts in Northern Ireland and Scotland to remove material from the commissioner’s annual report. The amendment removes
the final four subsections of Clause 42. These subsections allow material to be removed from the commissioner’s annual report on the grounds of the interests of national security, jeopardising the safety of any person and the risk of prejudice to the investigation or prosecution of an offence.
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Can the Minister please explain why these provisions are considered necessary? They are not replicated in the case of the children’s commissioners. To return to the Minister’s previous statement that the role is set out in a similar way to other commissioners, in respect of which commissioners does statute currently set out powers to remove material from an annual report on each of these three grounds? Before I move on, I highlight subsections (5) to (8) of Clause 41. These subsections include similar provisions to remove material from any other report a commissioner may make. Again, such provisions do not appear in the case of children’s commissioners. I would be grateful for any explanation the Minister can offer as to why these powers should remain in the Bill.
The amendments to Clause 41 in my name also seek to address concerns regarding the commissioner’s remit. The noble Lord, Lord McColl of Dulwich, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson of Abinger, are among those who at Second Reading expressed disappointment that the clause does not include victim protection and support within the commissioner’s remit. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, recalled that the Home Secretary had said the commissioner would attend to the protection of victims but highlighted that no such words appear in the Bill. Amendments 66A and 67ZA seek to address these concerns and Amendment 67ZA will include victim protection and support within the commissioner’s remit.
Victim protection and support are vital to ensure successful prosecutions. A safe and supported victim can give the evidence that is key to investigating and prosecuting these crimes. The Joint Committee on the draft Modern Slavery Bill made this point very clearly. It pointed to the evidence of the OSCE’s special representative and co-ordinator for combating trafficking of human beings who said:
“In order to strengthen the criminal justice response, we need a multifaceted range of criminal and social measures, which should include strengthening victims’ access to assistance, support and compensation”.
As already mentioned, the United States ambassador-at-large to combat trafficking in persons also emphasised the need to support victims. He said that,
“prosecution alone is not enough. We can’t prosecute our way out of this crime … we also need to enact systematic and structural changes to ensure that victims feel they can come forward and be made safe”.
Anti-Slavery International told the committee that,
“victims that are adequately safeguarded and supported are more likely to be willing to participate in criminal proceedings and better testify in court”.
These reasons, together with the dreadful abuse and harm so many victims suffer, show why the Government are right to emphasise that victims must be at the heart of this Bill and all that we do. Why then does the Bill not ensure that victims and their needs are at the heart of the commissioner’s responsibilities?
In response to concerns raised by the Joint Committee on the draft Modern Slavery Bill, and again by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Government have made two points. First, they have warned of,
“the risk of the Commissioner focusing on a general advocacy role at the expense of identifying key practical improvements”.
My amendments do not fundamentally alter the commissioner’s focus on identifying key practical improvements but rather extend the remit to identifying improvements in a wider range of areas to include victim protection and support. Given the evidence of experts in this field and the findings and recommendations of the Joint Committees that have considered these matters, there is a real risk that leaving the commissioner with the current, more restricted remit will simply not achieve improvements to identification, investigation and prosecution.
Secondly, the Government are concerned about the role cutting across other strategic roles, such as the victims’ commissioner. I heard no such concern from the victims’ commissioner, who is in her place today, when she spoke at Second Reading. I really do not understand why the Government cannot trust these commissioners to liaise with each other and make appropriate arrangements to ensure that they do not cut across each other’s roles. On the other hand, if they are to be diligent in differentiating their roles, I fear that we will simply find, as so often happens in such cases, that things will fall between the cracks.
I am sure that the victims’ commissioner and the anti-slavery commissioner can benefit enormously from each other’s experience and expertise. I am sure that we can add the children’s commissioners to that. We must surely recognise that the expertise and experience of each is informed by the wider remit and perspective that each has. With his particular focus on all matters concerning modern slavery, the anti-slavery commissioner could bring, and should be permitted and encouraged to bring, that expertise and knowledge into the area of victim protection and support.
Amendment 66A would require the commissioner to monitor as well as encourage good practice in all areas within his remit. At Second Reading several of your Lordships drew attention to the need for a monitoring role. The first part of Amendment 67ZB ties the monitoring role explicitly to the need to keep policy and legislation in this area under review and to ensure compliance with key international standards set out in the Council of Europe trafficking convention. The second part of Amendment 67ZB aims to ensure that the commissioner involves victims of trafficking in carrying out his duties and functions and in preparing his strategic plans. This mirrors a similar duty put upon the children’s commissioner. If we are to put victims at the heart of all that we do, how better to achieve that than to provide for a properly empowered and independent commissioner who is required to involve victims in his plans and actions?
It is apparent from the document that the Government produced, which is a strategy document, that they currently view the commissioner as an arm of the Home Office. That was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Warner, on a previous day in Committee. It may
also be assumed that the commissioner would help the Home Office in implementing the strategy. What we need is a powerful and independent commissioner who is in a position to monitor and assess the strategy and what is done. I do not doubt the Government’s commitment to ending modern slavery—the Home Secretary has made several statements indicating the strength of her personal commitment—but now maybe some humility, as the noble Lord mentioned in his speech on the last occasion, is needed. If we are to put victims at the heart of all that we do, and if we are to be world leaders, we need a truly independent commissioner who can look right across the piece and tell us all what is working well and what is not. The commissioner cannot be an arm of the Home Office. He needs to sit outside it, providing independent expert assessment, free from the distractions, pressures and competing objectives to which the department is subject.
Lastly, there was some discussion at Second Reading about whether we ought to be satisfied with the Bill as it is and look to future opportunities to amend and refine. I must say that I very much agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, who is not in her place just now, who warned that we are unlikely to be presented with such opportunities, at least not for some considerable time. However, if there were one voice that might be sufficiently powerful to demand that a future Government made time to allow for this if it proved necessary, it would certainly be a commissioner, independent of the Home Office and any other government department, with a sufficiently wide-ranging remit properly to assess and report on the impact of the Bill and the Government’s wider strategy in both combating modern slavery and protecting and supporting victims. The Bill as it stands will not give us such a commissioner. I very much hope that the Minister is able to commit to giving further thought to these matters.