My Lords, I shall just respond to the Minister briefly. I thank him for his reply and all noble Lords who have contributed to the debate.
The one fundamental point that I wish to make to the Minister is that, in all his responses, he failed to talk about the statistic referring to the dramatic increase of 47% in the number of victims, in the duty to notify process, who refused to consent to their names being put forward to the national referral mechanism. That is 3,190 reports of adult potential victims via that process who did not consent to their names being put forward. The Minister did not refer to that—and at its heart that is because people already, before the implementation of the Bill, are frightened to come forward and interact with the Government. That is the reality of the situation. For all the Minister’s protestations and reassurances, and all the statements that it will be done on a case-by-case basis, it does not alter the fact that already people are frightened of coming forward and being identified.
All the amendments before us seek to do is to address some of that problem. For example, Amendment 66, on which I will wish to test the opinion of the House, addresses the legislation where it says that if the people who do interact are late in providing information, they will be penalised and it must be taken into account and their claim refused. We are told that it does not matter because, on a case-by-case basis, they can be reassured—yet we are going to pass primary legislation to say that that provision must be included.
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On public order, we are told that there will be no need to worry, because we are talking about serious offences—and Ministers say that I have suggested that robbery and burglary are serious offences. Of course, they are serious offences. However, the Minister knows and understands that that does not reflect the situation of many people who are the victims of modern slavery and have been coerced and forced into criminality. He says, “Don’t worry about that—we’ll sort it out.” But in the primary legislation that we are going to pass, that is something that will have to be taken into account. That is why there is a worry about the legislation being drawn too widely.
On children, the Minister says, “Don’t worry—we shouldn’t have a twin-track approach.” I do not know whether you would call it a twin-track approach, but I think—I am sure along with those who have signed the amendments on children—you can call it twin track if you want. I think children should be treated differently from adults; it is a fundamental principle of all our public policy, which is why we have infant, junior schools and secondary schools, juvenile courts and adult courts, juvenile accommodation centres and adult prisons—because we wish to treat them differently. We do not call that a twin track; we call it a humane society reflecting the differences between children and adults, and that is what we should do here.
It is disappointing that the Minister has not reflected on that. I should have thought that, at the very least, there were one or two points on which the Minister might have said that we perhaps need to reflect, to see whether the legislation could be improved. He might have thought, after the various comments made right across the Chamber, that one or two noble Lords might actually have a point, and that even if the legislation was not changed, there might be one or two ways in which it could be improved.
I shall move certain of the amendments in my name, including Amendment 66, and I am sure other noble Lords will wish to move theirs, too.