§ Alistair BurtTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the date for the reopening of the undamaged section of the Yarl's Wood Removal
946WThe issue of the trafficking of those working in the sex trade is one which the Government take very seriously indeed. We have introduced a number of measures to address this.
The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, introduced a new offence that commenced on 10 February 2003 which criminalised the trafficking of a person for the purpose of controlling them in prostitution.
The Sexual Offences Bill, introduced into the House of Lords on 28 January 2003 proposes new comprehensive offences of trafficking for sexual exploitation to replace the stop-gap offence introduced by the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 of trafficking in prostitution. These new offences tackle the movement of people into, within and out of the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and will carry maximum penalties of 14 years imprisonment. The offence relating to trafficking within the UK applies equally to UK nationals trafficked from place to place in the UK, and to foreign nationals brought here and then moved around from place to place within the UK. This is the first time that the trafficking of UK nationals within the UK has been tackled in legislation.