§ Baroness Ludfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress they are making, in co-operation with European Union and other partners, to deter and punish those who traffic foreign women into the United Kingdom for the purposes of forcing them into prostitution. [HL1261]
114WA
§ Lord RookerThe Government are committed to putting in place effective measures to combat the trafficking in human beings and to penalise those engaged in this abhorrent practice. To this end. the United Kingdom has signed the Trafficking Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime which requires the specific criminalisation of trafficking in human beings.
At the European Union level, we have reached provisional agreement on the text of a European Union Framework Decision on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. The draft framework decision will require member states to adopt a common definition of trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual or labour exploitation. to criminalise the defined behaviour and to impose common minimum maximum penalties. Following its adoption by the Council, the framework decision will require that member states implement its provisions within two years.
A decision will be made on how best to implement the UN and EU agreements after the framework decision has been adopted and a number of measures are currently being considered. The Government will also take into account the outcome of the consultation exercise on Setting the Boundaries, the report of the Sex Offences Review. This made recommendations for a new offence of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Last year we set up Project REFLEX, which is a multi-agency task force chaired by the National Crime Squad, to co-ordinate anti-trafficking operations and develop the intelligence and strategic planning to underpin them. It is now well established and has resulted in some major successes involving partners overseas in tackling people trafficking.