Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Jackson of Peterborough Excerpts

Monday 10th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

I assure the hon. Gentleman that we take alcohol issues very seriously indeed, including the way in which they are recorded by the police. There is a great deal of alcohol harm in this country: £21 billion is the cost to the public purse from antisocial behaviour, damage to the health service and lost productivity. As Ministers, we all expect the police to record crime accurately.

[Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)]

T5. One consequence of an unfettered free movement directive is that illegal gangmasters from the European Union operating in the fens are linked to antisocial behaviour and human trafficking. What action is the Minister taking to end that phenomenon?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and I know how hard he works locally on that issue. The Government are taking firm action to combat illegal gangmasters in his constituency and elsewhere. We have set up a cross-Government multi-agency taskforce to apply the full range of enforcement powers. We are doubling the penalties on employers for breaching the national minimum wage and for employing illegal migrant workers, and we will bring forward a modern slavery Bill next Session to deal with that heinous crime.