Prostitution

Baroness Stern Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Baroness Stern]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review current policies on prostitution.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones)]

My Lords, the Government are looking at the approaches taken towards prostitution in different localities throughout England and Wales in order to identify effective practice in terms of policing, minimising harm, multiagency working and enabling people involved in prostitution to leave it. Practical guidance for local areas will be published later in the spring. As the noble Baroness will be aware, the Government have accepted 21 of the 23 recommendations of her recent review. I should like to thank the noble Baroness, particularly on behalf of the Home Secretary, for the wisdom and hard work that she has brought to this issue.

[Baroness Stern]

I thank the Minister for that extremely encouraging reply and for her very kind remarks about the rape review. Does she recall that after the conviction following the horrible murders of three street prostitutes in Bradford, the Association of Chief Police Officers called for a review of the laws on prostitution and for a dialogue on better ways to manage the problem? Does she accept that the current law is far from ideal? It does not protect prostitutes from danger, it does not help—as it should—those who want to exit prostitution, and it does not help the police to manage the problem. Does she intend to have a dialogue with the Association of Chief Police Officers about this?

[Baroness Neville-Jones]

My understanding is that it was one particular member of ACPO who commented recently on the subject and that his remarks focused more on management issues—in particular, the establishment of the database, how we fund it, how we get at information about how people are led into prostitution and what we then do about it—than on changing the law. The Government’s attitude to the legal situation is that given that there has been a recent change in the law, about which my party had some misgivings, we should now let the change settle down and see how it operates. However, we are doing that on the basis of very close evaluation of its effectiveness.

Linda Carty

Baroness Stern Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Jones]

My Lords, this is a very difficult case and I do not want to comment from the government Benches on its conduct so far. It is very clear that Miss Carty is now in a very difficult situation. We are focusing our efforts not at the federal level but at the state level, because that is the right place. I do not exclude our doing anything necessary to help this lady in any way that is proper and effective.

[Baroness Stern]

My Lords, I visited the women’s prison in Gatesville in Texas in 2006. I spent some time on death row and met all the women there, including Linda Carty. I remember it as clearly as though it were yesterday, and there is no doubt in my mind that this is a very sad case and that that is a very sad place. Does the Minister agree that this is not just a question of opposing the death penalty, which, quite rightly, we do—I, too, was most grateful to hear her commitment to continuing that stance—but that it is also probably a huge miscarriage of justice? Although I do not wish to ask the noble Baroness to say anything that could jeopardise the negotiations, I ask her to assure the House that this issue will stay very near the top of the agenda for as long as Linda Carty is alive and that everything will be done at every stage to try to secure a reconsideration of her case.

[Baroness Neville-Jones]

My Lords, I can give the House that assurance. I hope that noble Lords will also accept that, in Linda Carty’s interests, we need to be able to judge the appropriate methodology. Therefore, the fact that we do not necessarily hear a lot all the time does not mean that we are not trying to take the most effective action that we can.