draft Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Code of Practice) regulations 2016

Graham P Jones Excerpts

Monday 18th April 2016 General Committees

[Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

It would have perhaps been helpful if the Minister had spoken first and outlined the regulations, as we would all have been clearer as to what we are discussing. In the absence of that, I have a couple of quick questions that I would like to ask.

It says in schedule 2 to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 that, in summary, the changes will include the power to stop, board, divert and detain a vessel; the power to search a vessel and obtain information; and the power to make arrests and seize any relevant evidence. Obviously this will apply to ships in British waters. Does that mean that the ships have to have gone to, or be going to, a British port? I presume not. How does this apply to international waters, because the whole issue is about ships in international waters? Will it include, for example, British merchant ships or, in particular, British military ships that might be in the Indian ocean, when there may be British servicemen involved? How will that affect matters?

Will a vessel need to be going anywhere connected with Britain for us to have an involvement in it? What happens if a vessel is going from country B to country C and we understand that there may be people in enslavement on it? Will we be stopping that vessel, in the knowledge that it may contain people who are vulnerable and being abused? It could be in some far-off sea, such as the Pacific, the Indian ocean or whatever; we have military vessels out there. Will this apply then, and what will happen? How will we divert those ships, and to where? To what extent are we getting involved in the oceans of the world, and what will we do once we become aware of such behaviour? Will we act, and what will that action mean?