Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and Dominic Grieve

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

2. What steps he is taking to increase the number of convictions for human trafficking.

[The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve)]

The Crown Prosecution Service is working with law enforcement agencies and others in the UK, as well as in source countries, to improve the investigation and prosecution of those involved in human trafficking. The CPS is also encouraging victims of human trafficking to support criminal proceedings.

[Andrew Selous]

To what extent are prosecutors and police alert to the fact that British citizens are being trafficked both within the UK, as was uncovered shockingly in my constituency last September, and from the UK, as we learned earlier this month?

[The Attorney-General]

We are very much aware that this is a problem, but part of the difficulty is that trafficking for forced labour is notoriously difficult to establish, and often the victims will not come forward. That said, as my hon. Friend will be aware, there is now a national referral mechanism that alerts the police at neighbourhood level, the UK Border Agency, social services and charitable organisations as to how they can pick up such information and feed it into the specialist units of the police, which can then bring in the Crown Prosecution Service to try to deal with those matters.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and Dominic Grieve

Tuesday 1st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney-General]

The question arose in the context of parliamentary sovereignty. What I said to the seminar was what I also said to this House on the previous Thursday, which was that the operation of the European convention on human rights and the jurisdiction of the Court are based on the UK having signed up to the convention in the late 1940s and having ratified it through Parliament, with Parliament thereby accepting the jurisdiction of the Court. It is legally open to Parliament to enact primary legislation or otherwise to withdraw from the convention if it wished to do so and if the Government wished that through Parliament. That was the point that I was making; I was simply trying to explain the legal framework under which parliamentary sovereignty works in this context. I would add that any withdrawal would not come without costs or consequences, and it is not Government policy to withdraw.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to ensure better co-ordination between the Crown Prosecution Service and police forces.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Selous and Dominic Grieve

Tuesday 26th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

6. What discussions he has had with the Crown Prosecution Service on steps to increase the proportion of prosecutions for offences of human trafficking which result in conviction.

[The Attorney-General]

I have had no recent discussions with the CPS regarding the effectiveness of prosecution policy in human trafficking cases, but the CPS has comprehensive guidance for prosecutors to ensure that decisions in human trafficking cases are taken in line with the principles in the code for Crown prosecutors, taking account of the particular factors that are relevant in such cases. However, if my hon. Friend has specific concerns, I invite him to write to me. I have regular meetings with the DPP during which we discuss a range of issues and this topic can and will be included when necessary.

[Andrew Selous]

Will my right hon. and learned Friend get together the CPS, the police and the judiciary to see what we can do to increase the lamentably low number of convictions that we are currently securing for human trafficking?

[The Attorney-General]

I certainly share my hon. Friend’s desire to see the number of prosecutions increase. Of course, the CPS is ultimately a referral organisation—it takes the cases that are offered to it. There is some comfort in the latest figures: there is an indication that in the first six months of this year since April there were 17 prosecutions for trafficking under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004, compared with only 19 in the previous 12-month period, and similar figures can be found for prosecutions under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. However, I will bear the matter in mind. There is already a lot of close working between the CPS, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. Of course, these matters are also discussed when necessary with the judiciary.