Michael Connarty
Labour Member of UK Parliament - Linlithgow and East Falkirk Constituency
Victims of trafficking should not be prosecuted
3. Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab): What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to support victims of human trafficking to participate in criminal proceedings. [63519]
4. Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South) (Lab): What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to support victims of human trafficking to participate in criminal proceedings. [63520]
The Solicitor-General: The CPS is taking a number of steps to encourage victims of human trafficking to support criminal proceedings, including the publication of a new public policy statement setting out its prosecution policy and how it will support victims. As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) a moment ago, the Home Secretary will shortly publish her Department’s human trafficking strategy. The CPS is also working with non-governmental organisations to develop further measures to assist and support victims.
Michael Connarty: I am very heartened by the general replies and that specific reply from the Solicitor-General on this question, but we are aware of reported cases of magistrates saying to a 14-year-old girl who had been trafficked and found in a cannabis factory that she had clearly made a lifestyle choice. Did the Attorney-General give any evidence, or a submission, to the Home Secretary in the upcoming review? If not, why not? If so, will he place a copy of his contribution in the Library for us all to read?
The Solicitor-General: It would not be sensible for me to comment on unattributable, or unattributed, remarks by unidentified magistrates. If what the hon. Gentleman suggests was said in that case was said, it was clearly unwise. The Law Officers’ Department did make a contribution towards the thinking behind the Home Secretary’s human trafficking strategy. The hon. Gentleman will be able to read the strategy in full when it is published next week, and it will doubtless refer to all sorts of sources.
Susan Elan Jones: The US State Department’s 2011 “Trafficking in Persons Report” contains many things about the UK that hon. Members would find alarming, including the following quotation:
“Some potential and confirmed trafficking victims, including children, were prosecuted and imprisoned for committing offenses as a direct result of being trafficked.”
What does the Solicitor-General propose to do to stop that happening?
5 July 2011 : Column 1365
The Solicitor-General: As I said in answer to the question from the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Michael Connarty) and in connection with an earlier question, the Crown Prosecution Service public policy statement makes it clear that those who are trafficked—those who are victims of the trafficking—should not be prosecuted.
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