Susan Elan Jones
Main Page: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)Department Debates - View all Susan Elan Jones's debates with the Cabinet Office
(13 years, 4 months ago)
Commons Chamber3. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to support victims of human trafficking to participate in criminal proceedings.
4. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to support victims of human trafficking to participate in criminal proceedings.
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.
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 to 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.
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?