My Lords, I have Amendments 7 and 11 in this group and I want to be clear that I agree very much with the views that are behind all these amendments.
I hope that my first question—a technical question—will not be regarded as negative. Is a child a person within Clause 1(1)? That will affect amendments and how they are framed. My second question is probably a bit indelicate. It has only occurred to me this evening, while listening to the examples that your Lordships have given. It is a direct question to the Minister. Is the MoJ aware of examples of possible candidates—that is probably not a very happy term—who have been exploited or subjected to criminal or marginally criminal behaviour, which have not made their way to us? It may be possible. I possibly should not put the Minister on the spot now, but maybe we can talk about what the
MoJ has considered and discarded. Amendments 7 and 11 have been brought to us by Hestia, which supports victims of modern slavery. It is concerned with ensuring that those who are born to victims of modern slavery are covered.
I know that we have Clause 1(2)(b), which refers to circumstances
“where the person’s birth was the direct result of criminal conduct”,
but it would be very unfortunate if we were to run into the weeds of whether someone is a victim of rape—in other words, what is the relationship between the mother and the offender?—or if there is a doubt as to who is the father because the woman has been subjected to forced prostitution and the object of multiple rapes, because that kind of issue detracts from the support that is needed by the children of victims of modern slavery or human trafficking, whose experience in itself requires support.
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A significant number of children are born as a result of slavery and trafficking situations, and sometimes that is a result of rape. Hestia has highlighted the need to identify this group of children, with specific vulnerabilities and support needs differentiated from those of other vulnerable children. Its research shows that such children experience particular challenges, such as the transmission of trauma, developmental delays and unmet support needs, and that, like the children of victims of domestic abuse, they have support needs that we should be recognising.
I hope that the Minister can help us on this. I have found some of the drafting quite difficult to follow through, so I am not pretending that this is in any way a happy amendment in that respect, but there is a subject here that I think is very important for us to pursue.