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  • Angela Crawley – 2023 Speech on Fuel Costs for Rural Households and Communities

    Angela Crawley – 2023 Speech on Fuel Costs for Rural Households and Communities

    The speech made by Angela Crawley, the SNP MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    I beg to move,

    That this House has considered the cost of fuel on rural households and communities.

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts, and to bring this debate to Westminster Hall this morning. Around 2 million people across the UK are reliant on off-grid gas supplies to heat their homes, including heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas, coal and biomass. According to the latest fuel poverty statistics, rural homes are much more likely to be reliant on off-grid gas and more likely to be less energy-efficient. That has made rural households across my constituency of Lanark and Hamilton East, and across the UK, much more susceptible to the impact of the rising cost of fuel. In 2022, households in rural areas had the highest rate of fuel poverty, at 15.9% compared with 11.1% for those in urban areas.

    In summer last year, I was contacted by Roy, a constituent from Lanark who was worried about heating his home over the winter. In June 2022, the price of kerosene for Roy was £1 plus VAT per litre, with further increases on the horizon. With a minimum order of 500 litres as the industry standard, it was becoming unaffordable to keep up with the price increases. For Roy, the £400 energy bill support, the warm home discount and the alternative fuel payment simply do not go far enough. Paying for fuel up front with the exponential price increases that this winter brought is a significant hurdle for rural households and communities. Issuing alternative fuel payments months after households have already put their fuel order on their credit cards or taken money out of savings to cover the cost simply does make sense.

    Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)

    Some households have still not received payments because they are having difficulty with their electricity supplier or their landlord. The delay in accessing support for off-grid households is causing real hardship in rural areas. It seems unfair that people who have to pay for their energy up front—often the most vulnerable people—are still waiting in some cases for Government support with their household bills.

    Angela Crawley

    The hon. Lady is absolutely right. Although I welcome the fact that the Government recognised that there is a need, the response has been too slow. In reality, people, especially pensioners, had no more money on which to draw to pay up front. That has had a knock-on effect on many households, in particular many of mine in rural Clydesdale.

    Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)

    I commend the hon. Lady for bringing this subject forward. I agree with her, but it is not just about fuel; it is also about rural isolation. Does she agree that rural social isolation in the farming community is compounded by the rise in fuel costs? Going to young farmers’ club events, or something similar, does not boil down to finding time; it is about whether people have the resources to go. We need not only look at rural households and their fuel costs, but offer greater support to the farming community than it currently receives.

    Angela Crawley

    I thank the hon. Member, as always, for his intervention. He makes an important point. I am truly blessed to be the representative for Lanark and Hamilton East, which is home to a very wide and diverse community, including Clydesdale, the Clyde valley, which has a large population of farms. That community has been adversely affected by these costs.

    With all due respect to the Government, there is little that can be done in retrospect to ease the impact this issue has had on livelihoods. Issuing alternative fuel payments months after households have already put fuel orders on credit cards or taken money out of savings to cover the costs does not make sense. It is all well and good for households that have wriggle room or back-up savings, but many do not, as we all know. Rural households are often occupied by pensioners reliant on their pension as their only source of income. They may not have the means to stretch their budget any further.

    There are still households that are eligible for the alternative fuel payment but have not yet received it. The picture is even bleaker for those who are not connected to the gas grid and rely on electricity to heat their homes. They are not eligible for the alternative fuel payments, despite the latest fuel poverty statistics indicating that households using electricity as a main source of fuel for heating have the highest likelihood of experiencing fuel poverty.

    Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)

    The hon. Lady is being generous, and I congratulate her on securing a really important debate. Families in rural communities face excessive costs for fuel not only to heat their homes but to get about. There is no public transport for many of us in places such as Cumbria, and when there is, it is very expensive. People need a car just to get to work or study, and to shop. The coalition Government brought in the rural fuel duty relief scheme, but only 10,500 residents in the whole of England qualify for it. People from Brough, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Shap, Ambleside, Coniston or Hawkshead who need to travel are not able to benefit from the scheme. Would the hon. Lady advise the Minister to expand the scheme to ensure more communities can take advantage of it?

    Angela Crawley

    The hon. Member has made a compelling case in his own right. I acknowledge that transport is devolved in Scotland, but he makes an important point. Will the Minister say what she is doing to ensure that the remaining households who are eligible for the payments receive them as soon as possible? How does she intend to ameliorate the impact the rising cost of fuel is having on households who are off the gas grid and reliant on electricity to heat their homes?

    After facing increasing pressure to introduce a price cap to help domestic fuel customers with high fuel prices, the Government, unsurprisingly, fell on the side of big business. They were too concerned about the impact that placing a price cap on heating oil and liquefied petroleum gas would have on market competition, rather than the impoverishment of households struggling to afford to heat their homes. My office has had the unfortunate job of forwarding the Government’s position on to concerned constituents who are struggling to keep up with the cost of being off grid. One constituent said:

    “My concern is that my future financial security will be damaged just to keep my off-grid gas supplier making a healthy profit.”

    This year, I have been surveying my constituents to gather their experiences and opinions on the cost of living. When asked what the one thing I could raise in Parliament for them would be, an overwhelming majority of responses were concerned with the immense profits of energy suppliers. This week, there have been increasing rumours that the windfall tax the Government have already put in place may be relaxed. What would the Minister say to my constituents and the many other people who are calling for a more stringent windfall tax regime to be implemented, rather than relaxed?

    The winter may be drawing to an end, but the issue remains. For Roy, the price of kerosene in April is estimated to be around 71p per litre excluding VAT. This month, according to the Office for National Statistics, the price sits at around 81p, which is still 35p higher than this time last year, and 32p higher than it was before the pandemic in 2020. I am sure the Minister will be quick to reel off all the support measures the Government have put in place throughout this crisis, and I recognise that a number of measures have been put in place, but many people fell through the gaps, and Roy and many of my rural constituents are among them.

    The reality is that the measures introduced simply do not go far enough for those who are off the grid. On top of the pressures of the rising cost of fuel, increases to standing charges have been allowed to happen under the radar. Because of that, while households across the UK may receive some relief through the support measures put in place this winter, they are still feeling the pinch. Will the Government commit to taking more meaningful action to reduce the exponential increases to standing charges? What support is she prepared to put in place to support those reliant on off-grid gas to heat their homes, outwith the context of a cost of living crisis?

    I will close my contribution by discussing the picture in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s recent statistics show that one third of households in remote rural areas are classified as experiencing extreme fuel poverty. In Scotland, 65% of rural dwellings are not covered by the gas grid, and our remote and rural communities are facing annual energy bills of more than double the UK average. That discrepancy was ignored in the UK Government’s energy support package this winter and in the spring statement. Scotland is abundant in clean, green and renewable energy and, indeed, oil, but we cannot reap the benefits while under Westminster control. Rural households, which have contributed so much to the export of renewable energy, pay exponentially for being off the grid. That cannot continue. In my opinion, Scotland needs full powers of independence to truly equalise the energy price discrepancies between rural and urban communities. I hope that the Minister will respond with action.

  • Stephen Parkinson – 2023 Speech at Heritage Day (Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay)

    Stephen Parkinson – 2023 Speech at Heritage Day (Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay)

    The speech made by Stephen Parkinson, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, at Charterhouse in London on 2 March 2023.

    “Thank you very much and thank you to you, Lizzie, for inviting me to be here today. I’m delighted to be the Minister for both Arts and Heritage and to be able to talk to you all here at the Charterhouse. And what a glorious building this is – inside and out, looking splendid in the sunshine – and what a fantastic room, so thank you for having me here with you.

    This is a brilliant part of London to be holding Heritage Day in. As well as the Charterhouse, a number of us started the day in the fabulous Great Hall at St. Bart’s Hospital, where the National Lottery Heritage Fund was unveiling its new 10-year strategy. St. Bart’s celebrates its 900th anniversary this year, along with St. Bartholomew the Great, which is part of the same foundation, both great examples of living heritage, still doing the things – providing clinical and spiritual nourishment to people – that they’ve been doing for close to a millennium.

    Sir John Betjeman – one of my heritage heroes – lived alongside it in Cloth Fair, in what has been dubbed ‘the oldest house in London’, the only surviving residential home that pre-dates the Great Fire of London, and now brilliantly looked after by the Landmark Trust, where you can walk in his footsteps and sit in his sitting room. If you’re itching for a pint at the end of today’s discussions, there are so many wonderful pubs – I’d particularly recommend the Hand & Shears, which has been serving people on that site since 1532.

    Or you could wander home through Smithfield Market, which has nearly 800 years of continuous trading there. And if, like me, you are sad that that’s coming to an end soon, you can cheer yourself up by seeing the fantastic work which is already underway for its new home for the Museum of London – so it’s a really brilliant neighbourhood you’ve chosen to meet in.

    I hope that today’s meeting, and the discussions you’ve been having today and yesterday, have been a good opportunity to come together and discuss the challenges and opportunities which are facing the heritage sector.

    As a history graduate, I’m passionate about history and heritage, so I was delighted to be appointed Minister responsible for Heritage. It has been wonderful to get out and about and meet lots of people – I joined DCMS towards the end of the pandemic so I’ve been meeting people as they’ve been able to get back to their sites and venues. I’ve seen the strong collaboration across the sector, and across all of our sectors at DCMS, during the challenging months of the pandemic – so thank you to all of you who were helping each other and helping us out through those challenging times.

    As you know, as of last month DCMS has a new Secretary of State – a frequent occurrence, I know. We now have Lucy Frazer, and a renewed focus on Culture, Media and Sport – which encompasses heritage, the arts, and the creative industries. I’m sure there are many here who hark back fondly to the days of the Department for National Heritage, but heritage and tourism are very much part of the central work of the Department, even if they’re not quite in the acronym. The changes reflect the Prime Minister’s recognition of the importance of our sectors to the UK economy – and build on our position as a global leader in them.

    And heritage of course is a key part of that. Our heritage, and the sectors that sustain it, are an important source of economic prosperity and growth for our country, as well as nourishing well-being. It is hard to define heritage in a way that fully encapsulates the depth and breadth of our national heritage – from thousands of historic buildings, parks, and natural landscapes, to ancient monuments, maritime wrecks, and archaeological sites.

    What we know is that heritage is a key part of the UK’s global brand, and an important source of economic prosperity and growth for our country. It is a significant draw for tourists from all over the world, from the historic landscape of the national parks like the Lake District to venues like the Tower of London which attracts so many people year in, year out. Heritage attracts millions of domestic and international tourists each year, and the visitor economy plays a vital role in driving growth.

    And of course during the months of the pandemic when we were all taking staycations, I think people have been rediscovering the heritage and the destinations that are right on their doorstep and looking at them afresh, which is very exciting.

    This year will give us plenty more to celebrate and promote.

    It was wonderful news to hear that Thornborough Henges have been saved for the nation, and are now part of the National Heritage Collection. And today, through this conference, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Heritage Alliance, the largest coalition of heritage interests in England, with over 190 independent organisations. Over the last two decades the Alliance has played a vital role in protecting our nation’s heritage. So thank you for that incredible work over the last 20 years, and here’s to many more successes in the decades to come.

    As I mentioned, this morning saw the launch of the Heritage Fund’s new ten-year strategy, which I was pleased to attend with many of you. It is great to see the Heritage Fund’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that – through both open and targeted investment – a broad range of the UK’s heritage will continue to be supported and valued and cared for, for the widest possible audiences.

    In May, of course, we have the Coronation of His Majesty The King, something that very few people living have experienced before. It’s a huge opportunity to show off the rich history of this country and for people across the UK to come together and celebrate. Shortly after that, we have the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool – a culturally different but equally exciting opportunity which we’re very proud to be hosting on behalf of Ukraine, and a chance for Liverpool, that fine city with wonderfully rich musical heritage, to show itself off on the world stage.

    But I know that we can’t look forward without also looking at some of the challenges which we all know we still face. I appreciate that, for lots of organisations, reserves were depleted during the pandemic – and now inflation and the rising costs of living because of the invasion of Ukraine and the actions of Russia are having a significant impact; that the economic headwinds are still blowing strongly and that the environment is still a challenging one for many.

    As you know, the Government has taken action – we were proud to stand with you during the pandemic through the Cultural Recovery Fund. I’m so grateful to Historic England and the Heritage Fund and others who helped us get that money to the organisations that needed it so we could welcome people back. And of course for the past six months, through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, we’ve been supporting organisations through a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices. From April, we’ll continue to provide support through the Energy Bills Discount Scheme, which will continue to help businesses over the next 12 months.

    In addition, we will also offer support to energy- and trade-intensive industries – including heritage sites – with a higher discount applied to 70% of energy volumes. Details on how that will work, and how widely it will apply, are yet to be determined, but we wouldn’t have got that outcome and that recognition without the brilliant collaboration we’ve had across the sector, so thank you for the evidence and the insights you’ve helped give the team at DCMS, which helped us represent you effectively across Government.

    Alongside this, environmental sustainability and reaching Net Zero carbon dioxide emissions are a key priority for the Government. Heritage plays a unique role in our journey to a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable future. And of course heritage knows only too well the risks to our cultural, historical, archaeological and marine environment from climate change.

    We need to use our internationally-renowned expertise in the UK to make significant changes in the coming years to protect our natural and historic environment, and to limit the impact of climate change.

    There are more than 5 million homes in England built before the end of the First World War. That represents 20% of England’s housing stock. If we want to reduce our energy consumption, we need to ensure that historic buildings are a successful part of the transition to Net Zero.

    Our aim is to ensure that the right balance is struck between our Net Zero goals, protecting heritage, and ensuring the positive adaptation of our existing housing stock.

    Not only do we need to create incentives for that sort of positive adaptation, we need to ensure that the workforce is there to deliver it and to meet the scale of the challenge required. As part of the review into Adapting Historic Homes for Energy Efficiency, we are working with other Government Departments to see how we can boost the skills of existing builders and craftspeople, and how we can create a new pipeline of future talent. We’re doing some work with the Department for Education on a new Cultural Education Plan – I’m glad that heritage and heritage skills are being reflected in the panel that are helping us to do that work.

    We are also committed to working with you to explore potential ways to encourage the repair and maintenance of historic buildings. This includes what I know is the long-running issue of VAT on maintenance of buildings.

    I am determined to explore opportunities for reform, and to understand the implications of any potential change to VAT on repairs and maintenance of historic buildings. Our new Secretary of State has come fresh from being Housing Minister, and she’s previously been Financial Secretary to HM Treasury, which are both very important in helping us make that case across Whitehall. We’ve already been discussing the issue with colleagues in Government. and we’ll continue to work with you on that.

    One of the Government’s top priorities, which I know you have been keenly engaged in, is levelling up every part of the UK ensuring that everyone has the ability to engage with the opportunities that are around them.

    Our country’s world-class heritage – from our historic coastline, our industrial buildings and inspiring places of worship – are a vital part of our national identity.

    This means that recognising, protecting, and celebrating our heritage can (and indeed already does) play a critical role in levelling up, by contributing to our local and national economy, regenerating places that have too long felt overlooked, enhancing well-being, and building pride in place. The Government’s levelling up funding programmes are helping to do that.

    As part of the first round of the Levelling Up Fund, places all over the country were supported to deliver a wide range of projects with culture and heritage at their heart. The Fund is enabling Wentworth Woodhouse, for instance, to transform its riding school and stables to create new hospitality and visitor centres – and, in the second round of the fund that was announced at the beginning of this year, there were many more inspiring projects that I look forward to visiting as the funding unlocks them and helps them be delivered.

    Other heritage-led initiatives, like the £95 million High Streets Heritage Action Zones programme, which is funded by the Government and delivered by Historic England, also have a key role to play in empowering people to engage with their local heritage.

    The Secretary of State and I celebrated this programme only last week at a Parliamentary reception. It’s been the largest ever Government investment in built heritage, benefiting 67 high streets across England. I’ve seen some myself, including in a visit to Coventry during its time as City of Culture, and in Gloucester.

    It is important that, as we seek to boost growth and regenerate places across the country, that the planning system continues to protect our heritage buildings, and ensures that these historic assets are complemented by new, high-quality buildings which will reinforce and add to the distinctive character of local places.

    I am pleased that heritage protection has been recently championed in planning legislation through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which is currently before the House of Lords.

    The heritage provisions in the Bill aim to provide greater clarity on requirements, standards, and processes when dealing with heritage – and to enable a more streamlined approach to be taken in the new planning system.

    The Bill will also deliver planning reforms to ensure that new development is more beautiful, produces more local infrastructure, is shaped by local people’s democratic wishes, improves environmental outcomes, and takes place with neighbourhoods very much in mind.

    I want neighbourhoods and communities to continue to celebrate their local heritage in places across the country, and to harness the power of the past to build links between people and the places they live and work in today.

    That’s why I’m keen to explore new and more ambitious ways of doing this – including looking into the expansion of the official Blue Plaque scheme beyond London. I know that’s something that has been looked at before, and I know there are brilliant schemes across the country where people already recognise local figures that are celebrated in their communities, but I’d like to see that taking place not just in our nation’s capital.

    Blue Plaques help people to understand and value their local heritage, and to take pride in their community. Since 1866, the scheme has been focused on London alone – and while there are many brilliant schemes that sit alongside it, I think it is right that the official scheme run by a national organisation should be nation-wide.

    Indeed, the politician who inspired the scheme in the 1860s, William Ewart, was born in Liverpool, and sat in the Commons for that city, as well as for Wigan and Bletchingley in Surrey. He died in Devizes in Wiltshire. None of those places are covered by the scheme he bequeathed us.

    I want young people across the country to see that people from their local area have done things of which they can still today be so proud.

    It’s very fitting that on World Book Day – particularly as we walked past the wonderful Florin Court, which so many people know from the TV adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels – that we can think of Dame Agatha today. She has a Blue Plaque on her house in Kensington, but she was born in Torquay and lived a lot of her life in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. She’s world renowned – and people everywhere should know the links that she and figures like her have to their communities.

    Robert Stephenson, the great railway pioneer, was born in Willington Quay on the banks of the Tyne. He sat in Parliament for Whitby, in North Yorkshire. I want those communities and the world to know what a pioneer he was – and what a great gift he gave to the world through the engineering which we celebrate in railway heritage. I look forward to working with English Heritage and others who have views on the best way of doing that.

    I would like to finish thanking you all again for the hard work that you and your organisations have done during the pandemic and since, and the many years before that as well, in support of our nation’s great heritage.

    Thank you to the Heritage Alliance for putting on this fantastic event. It’s been brilliant working with you since I got heritage in my job title, and I look forward to continue doing that in the future.”

  • Holly Lynch – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    Holly Lynch – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    The speech made by Holly Lynch, the Labour MP for Halifax, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Stuart C. McDonald). I will start, as others have, by paying tribute to and thanking the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) for securing the debate. In addition, I thank him for all the campaigning work that he has done in this policy area. He shared powerful examples of where the failures in the system have further compounded the risk, particularly for children, of being re-trafficked. I also join him from the outset in paying tribute to the incredible work of Justice and Care, which has had a transformative effect. I have had the opportunity to see their victim navigators in West Yorkshire and the tremendous impact that they have had in supporting victims and securing prosecutions.

    We know that the number of victims of these heinous crimes is increasing. My hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), like almost every Member who has contributed to the debate, made the point that we were once so proud of our modern slavery laws, but, as we have just heard, we seem to be taking backward steps in identifying victims and supporting them through to the prosecution of their abusers. Nearly 17,000 potential victims were referred to the NRM in 2022—a 33% increase on the previous year—but charities have predicted, using police data, that there could be at least 100,000 victims in the UK.

    I want to share the story of Sanu, who was tricked into living and working in slave-like conditions in the UK. For seven years, he was beaten, threatened and given no wages for the constant work he did in his trafficker’s shop. He had had to beg for money and food. Now he is living in a Salvation Army safe house where the support he is receiving is helping him to overcome his ordeal.

    Sanu told the Salvation Army:

    “I came to the UK to study. That was my goal…I worked at least 50 to 60 hours a week and sometimes 90 to 100. I would start at 8 o’clock and have to carry on until he said I could leave. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere; no mobile phone. I couldn’t go to the GP. He said if you talk to anyone then the police will come and get you…My trafficker knew I had nowhere to stay and no other friends. He knew how to control me. He controlled me like in a video game with a remote controller…Every minute every second he took from me. Even now I can still be scared. What happened to me is all wrong. I still have trauma and nightmares…I try to sleep but I still see his face, it is like he’s still chasing me.”

    I do not need to tell the Members who are here in Westminster Hall that when we talk about victims, we are not solely talking about foreign nationals. The reporting of British victims to the NRM is rising, and 2022 saw the highest number of British possible victims identified since the NRM began. Most of those, as we have heard, were children. In 2022, one NRM referral in five was for a British child, and many more British children are thought to be vulnerable. Research suggests that there is a failure to refer many British victims to the NRM because they are not identified as victims of modern slavery or because of missed opportunities to safeguard them.

    In the face of such a crisis, we need a system that finds victims, protects them, supports them and helps them to rebuild their lives, but as things stand that is not happening. Many victims never access the NRM support system, and if they do, there are huge delays in decision making. That means that many are stuck in the system, receiving wildly varying quality of care and unable to move through. Once people are confirmed as victims, there are few meaningful support mechanisms to help them rebuild their lives, and the impact of that on their mental health must not be understated.

    How do we ensure that those vulnerable victims are reached and receive help once they have been identified? We desperately need to improve the first responder role. Effective, informed training and safeguarding procedures are needed to ensure that victims do not slip through the net. Training and policies need to include increasing understanding of the specific needs, circumstances and entitlements of British national victims, improving the transition from child to adult services, and the development of professional modern slavery risk assessment tools for British nationals.

    Let me look at how we can improve the decision-making process. Decision makers must have modern slavery understanding, expertise and experience. Evidence from pilot schemes that have devolved the decision making away from the Home Office shows that the pilots look to have generated impressive results. The processing is speeded up, and any conflict of interest for the Home Office is removed. A multi-agency approach, and the broad knowledge and wisdom that come with it, could improve decision making for victims—certainly those with complex needs.

    The key to truly ending these terrible crimes is to lock up the traffickers—a point about which the former Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), spoke powerfully. We know that the number of victims is increasing, but prosecution rates are shamefully low. Ministry of Justice statistics show that in 2021 there were only 93 prosecutions and 33 convictions in cases in which modern slavery was the principal offence.

    Proper support enables modern slavery victims to engage in securing the prosecution of traffickers. Support for victims, including victim navigators, whose incredible work I have had the opportunity to see, is central to successful convictions.

    I want to talk about a case study that was shared in The Guardian this week by investigative reporter Annie Kelly. Julia is a Ukrainian survivor of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. She was tricked into coming to the UK under the false promise of legitimate hotel work. For five years, she was controlled by criminal gangs who had seized her passport and forced her to engage in prostitution. She had no control over who she saw or what she was expected to do. Desperate to support her child back in Ukraine and unable to speak English, Julia says she felt trapped by her immigration status and her debt. When she was rescued by the police, she began to build a relationship with a victim navigator, who supported her. Julia, with the victim navigator’s support, worked with the police, and her bravery has resulted in the establishment of an international taskforce, the identification of 120 other female victims and the conviction of five exploiters. Julia is now recovering and rebuilding her life.

    Julia’s story and research from charities on the frontline make it clear that consistent support means that victims engage with police investigations. That support needs to come first, to create stability and confidence, and the evidence backs this up. The final evaluation of Justice and Care’s victim navigator pilot scheme found that between September 2018 and June 2022, 92% of survivors who were supported engaged with police, compared with just 44% of survivors without a victim navigator. Twenty exploiters were convicted, 38 prosecutions of accused exploiters were supported and the total sentences for convicted offenders amounted to 178 years and eight months. Between 2018 and 2020, all 62 adult survivors receiving long-term support through one of the Home Office local authority pathways pilot schemes supported a police investigation.

    The public are very much ahead of the Government on this; they recognise the connection between supporting victims and bringing offenders to justice. Recent polling for the CSJ and Justice and Care revealed that 82% of the people asked agreed that more Government support for victims of modern slavery is needed to bring more criminal gangs to justice. All of this goes to show that if Government were serious about convicting traffickers, they would be serious about support for victims, but as others have said over the past two days, the Government’s legislation will make it much worse.

    The Illegal Migration Bill will have a devastating impact on victims of modern slavery. This is a quote from a letter by the CEOs of organisations that support people through the modern slavery victim care contract:

    “Were this bill to come into effect, we fear that many of these survivors would be denied the opportunities to rebuild their lives and reclaim their autonomy.

    This bill will do nothing to break cycles of exploitation or help people break free of modern slavery. Instead, it will feed the criminal networks who profit from the lives of vulnerable people. It is essential that genuine victims of modern slavery are afforded the right to seek support.

    Furthermore, by closing the route to safety and support, the Illegal Migration Bill risks strengthening the hands of trafficking networks. Traffickers keep people under their control with threats that they will not receive help if they reach out to the authorities. This bill will substantiate this claim and further dissuade survivors from coming forward…Failure to support survivors will result in an undermining of criminal investigations and prosecutions.”

    Modern slavery referrals are only a small proportion of overall illegal migration and asylum claims. As the Centre for Social Justice states, only 7% of small boat arrivals since 2018 have been referred to the modern slavery national referral mechanism.

    I join the hon. Member for Wellingborough in stressing how disappointed we are that Dame Sara Thornton, who was incredibly effective as the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, left the post in April last year and it has been vacant for nearly a year. That is unacceptable, and I urge the Minister to update the House on why it has not been a priority for this Government and how they intend to correct that.

    We agree with the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price) that cuckooing is an abhorrent crime. We welcome the Government’s commitment this week to engage with stakeholders on a new offence, but I urge them to move forward as a matter of urgency to protect people who might be subject to such a degree of abuse.

    It is right that we try to stop the dangerous crossings—the human cost is so great—but brutal and cruel targeting of vulnerable victims is not the right path, and I hope the Minister has understood that.

  • Stuart McDonald – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    Stuart McDonald – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    The speech made by Stuart McDonald, the SNP MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    I, too, start by congratulating the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) on securing what he quite rightly described as a very timely debate. I hope that he is restored to full health very soon. I also very genuinely thank him for all his work over many years, which I think is recognised across the House; he has been a real champion for victims of trafficking.

    The starting point for this debate—unusually, I agree with the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel)—should be recognition that we have in place across the United Kingdom some genuinely world-leading pieces of legislation that are designed to tackle trafficking and slavery. The problem, as a couple of hon. Members have already said, is that the message coming from those who work with trafficking victims is that we are in danger of going backwards and that these are truly worrying times for people caught up in those appalling crimes.

    That is because—again, as has already been alluded to in this debate—the Government are increasingly conflating trafficking and immigration. That is despite the fact that, as other hon. Members have also already said, since 2018 over 16,000 British nationals have been referred to the national referral mechanism. That is a clear reminder that modern slavery is a crime of exploitation and not immigration. Despite that, however, the Government now seem to be consciously stripping away rights and protections from trafficking victims as a tool of immigration policy. So, the first and most important call that I make today is that we need the Government to recommit to eradicating modern-day slavery, because at the moment the Government’s commitment is increasingly being seen as playing second fiddle to immigration policy. Indeed, I almost think that we are at a point where we have to ask whether we should have trafficking policy being decided by the same Department that is in charge of immigration policy, because I think that one is dominating the other and that is not good for victims.

    I will address three issues today. First, I will briefly consider the impact of the Illegal Migration Bill; secondly, I will take a quick look at some of the so-called “evidence” being used to justify that Bill, which the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) has already spoken about a little; and, thirdly, one issue that has not been touched on already is some of the updates to the modern slavery statutory guidance, which was implemented on 30 January 2023.

    First of all, in relation to the Illegal Migration Bill, it is fair to say and Members will be aware that there were widespread and deep-seated concerns raised right across the House yesterday about the impact of that Bill on victims of trafficking. Members will be aware that I absolutely reject the logic of deterrence. However, even if someone accepts that premise, the logic of deterrence that permeates the Bill just does not apply when it comes to trafficking, because the simple point is that we cannot deter a trafficking victim from coming here; it is not a free choice, as the hon. Member for Wellingborough pointed out. So it makes no sense for the Government to massively undermine the various UK modern slavery laws through the Bill in the way that they propose to do.

    The carveout in the Bill for situations where there is assistance with an investigation is worthless. That is because the result of the Bill will be that trafficking victims simply will not come forward to seek help at all, particularly if they are simply going to be discarded as soon as they have served any useful purpose in the criminal justice system. Consequently, I suspect that the Bill may well deliver a reduction in the number of possible trafficking victims being referred into the NRM, but that will simply be because fewer victims are coming forward and not because there are fewer victims.

    Indeed, the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group is clear that the Bill will increase the number of victims and reduce the number of prosecutions against traffickers, driving the modern slavery system underground, meaning that survivors will no longer be able to report trafficking and access the assistance that they genuinely require.

    Secondly, like the hon. Member for Rotherham, I will speak about all these allegations that people are “gaming the system”, to quote the current Home Secretary. I think that that narrative is quite simply not backed up by evidence, so the Home Office and the Home Secretary herself should provide the evidence to back up those claims, if there is any. The Home Office has already been reprimanded by the Office for Statistics Regulation and in December 2022 three UN special rapporteurs also expressed alarm at the UK Government’s increasing use of unsubstantiated and unevidenced claims.

    The simple point made by those working in the field is that abuse of the modern slavery system is barely possible, and that point was made several times yesterday as well in the debate in the main Chamber, because someone cannot just claim to be a modern slave and enter the NRM in that way; someone has to be referred by an approved first responder. The Home Office must trust its own system, which prevents people with fraudulent claims of modern slavery from accessing support. The reasonable grounds decision within the NRM is designed exactly for that purpose.

    So what are the actual statistics that are available to us? Based on Home Office figures, of the 83,000 people who arrived in the UK on small boats between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2022, only 7% were referred as potential victims of modern slavery. In the calendar year 2022, it was only 6% and the percentage subsequently recognised as victims of modern slavery or trafficking was 85%. There is also no evidence of an uptick in those being referred into the NRM and receiving a negative decision. The calendar year 2022 is absolutely consistent with earlier years in showing that 90% or more of those being referred into the NRM received conclusive grounds decisions that are positive.

    This is the issue for the Minister: if the Home Office is going to persist in arguing that the modern slavery system is being abused, it must produce evidence. It would be useful to know what evidence and data the Government have.

    I agree with the hon. Members speaking yesterday that the Illegal Migration Bill, which is now before Parliament, risks pushing victims away from seeking support and back into the arms of traffickers. We should improve the NRM and trafficking assessments. We should improve access to support and not drive people away from it.

    The modern slavery statutory guidance, which was operationalised on 30 January 2023, was designed to remove what the Prime Minister referred to as the “gold plating” in our modern slavery system. Those updates include changes to the decision-making thresholds, which require survivors to provide unreasonably high levels of evidence in unrealistically short timeframes. New exclusions for bad-faith claims have been applied, but without sufficient safeguards built in. Victims and first responders will not be able to gather the necessary evidence in the five-day timeframe, meaning that genuine trafficking victims will be prevented from entering the NRM. There is no data yet available to determine the impact that the new guidance has had, so it would be useful to hear from the Minister what early analysis the Department has done about the impact of the new guidelines.

    In implementing these guidelines, it seems to have been forgotten that the whole premise of the NRM and the two-tier decision-making process is to allow people to get a reasonable grounds decision fairly easily in order to access a recovery and reflection period. At that stage, evidence can be gathered in order to receive a conclusive grounds decision, if that can be reached.

    Upping the reasonable grounds threshold will directly affect first responder organisations. They will have to provide a higher level of and more complex evidence, meaning that the amount of evidence and casework required to get a positive reasonable grounds decision, when compared with the situation previously, will put further extensive pressure on organisations that are already at breaking point. One designated first responder organisation has commented:

    “The update puts additional burden on an already collapsing First Responder system, with capacity for referrals dangerously low.”

    Concerns have been raised by modern slavery and trafficking organisations that the changes are building on previous regressive changes, including when the recovery period was reduced from 45 days to 30 and the multi-agency assurance panel process was removed. There are significant concerns that, together, those changes will make it harder for survivors to be identified and to access support, and that this represents a regression in efforts to increase identification and trauma-informed support for modern slavery victims.

    We could have said a lot in this debate about where we should go with our modern slavery policy. There are calls for more evidence-led policies; for collaborative approaches; for investment to fix the NRM and the huge backlog there; to improve training for first responder organisations; and to recognise more first responder organisations. There are calls for better and longer support for survivors that is tailored to their individual needs. That helps them and it helps us to prosecute criminals. We must improve prosecution rates and, as many hon. Members have said, we must have an independent anti-slavery commissioner in place.

    The problem is, however, that before we can move forward, we must stop moving backwards. Sadly, things appear to be getting worse, rather than better. At the very least, we must take out the modern slavery provisions in the Illegal Migration Bill. We must also reconsider some of the recent changes to modern slavery guidance. We have to consider whether we can continue to have one Department responsible both for looking after trafficking victims and for immigration policy, because it seems to be delivering absolutely the wrong results.

  • Giles Watling – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    Giles Watling – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    The speech made by Giles Watling, the Conservative MP for Clacton, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) on bringing forward this important debate and speaking so powerfully. Since Kindertransport and before, right through to those coming from Afghanistan and Ukraine today, we are proud in this country to give people safe haven, and we must continue to do so.

    I will focus on the boats. As a yachtsman, I am well aware of the dangers of crossing open waters. On 23 September last year, I was crossing the channel—quite legally—and I saw the French warship Athos behaving in the most extraordinary fashion. I looked on the navigation device and saw that it was circling, and it kept circling as it left the French coast towards the UK coast. It was circling around a very small boat crowded with people. When we got closer, we could see those people; they were in a desperate condition. What horrified me about that particular incident was that the French warship was just circling them. I am a yachtsman; I am a seaman. That is what I do. What we do is take desperate people off those boats and make sure they are safe. I have the evidence on my phone right here.

    We must stop that sort of thing happening. Stopping illegal boats is a matter of common humanity. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel) said, 39 people lost their lives in the back of a trailer, so it is not just the boats in south Essex. That is because of our weak borders. The cost to the taxpayer is enormous because of this Home Office malfunction, as I see it. It is not acceptable. I believe something like £7 million per day is spent on hotel fees, which is outrageous, but we are looking to address this. We have to show humanity about it.

    Locally, at a party conference last year I was contacted by the chief executive of my local council. He told me that he had been given 24 hours’ notice, at a weekend, that we were going to have a migrant hotel suddenly opened upon us. The council did not have time to get services in line. Those people would need help. It was a question of putting desperate people in a deprived place. This was not nimbyism; the local council had identified other, more suitable sites, but the company that the Home Office had employed had decided to open that site within 24 hours.

    Fortunately, by working with officials and asking an urgent question in the Chamber, I was able to get that particular incident stopped. We are dealing with this with a scattergun approach. We are being reactive as the incidents happen. We cannot go on like this. We cannot keep fighting a rearguard action. For the sake of humanity, and for the sake of the taxpayers of Clacton and elsewhere, we must stop the boats. That means backing the new Government measures, which have been laid out here today, and making the Home Office more logistically competent. In my view, and I have said this several times before, that means liaising with our French counterparts and getting British boots on the ground in France. We can do this. I am sure our French counterparts would like to see it. That would stop the boats leaving those beaches, and prevent the horror that so many people go through. We saw a child on a beach in Kent, and we never want to see that again.

  • Jim Shannon – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    Jim Shannon – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    The speech made by Jim Shannon, the DUP MP for Strangford, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel) and I thank her for her contribution. I especially thank the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) for securing this important debate and powerfully setting the scene. It is a grave injustice that abuses such as human trafficking and slavery persist in the modern world, being used as weapons against already marginalised and vulnerable communities. I will focus on human trafficking and its relevance to freedom of religion or belief—two distinct but overlapping areas of human rights where much more work could be done by our Government. I declare an interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary groups for international freedom of religion or belief and for religious minorities of Pakistan.

    It is a grave injustice, heaped upon other injustices, that where girls and women are persecuted for their faith, they are also at risk of human trafficking. Such targeting threatens to dismantle entire communities, as women are no longer present to pass their faith on to their children. Should women escape their captors, as others have referred to, they face stigma and ostracism from their community.

    Reports by Open Doors on gender and freedom of religion and belief find that in many countries where Christians are the most persecuted, marriage documentation is often used to cover up human trafficking. It is estimated that in the 50 countries with the highest level of Christian persecution, forced marriages of women have increased by 16%. It is a real issue, and, through the APPG, we know of many cases and incidents. Those women are at a heightened risk of human trafficking and sex trafficking as a result. Open Doors’ research notes that traffickers often attempt to cloak the associated sexual violence behind a claim that the girl is now married, when clearly the girl has had no choice. In reality, it is often a forced marriage or one resulting from targeted seduction. We should be under no illusion what this means; evil people—evil men—target ladies for that purpose.

    Where religion forms a dimension of human trafficking and modern slavery, the motivating factor of profit no longer applies to those who exploit other humans. Material gain may come from the trafficking of those who belong to a different religious group, but the driving motivators are religious factors and the eradication of a religious group different from one’s own. That is a clear issue that we have identified. Sex trafficking serves as a primary tool for the persecution of religious groups, be that Boko Haram targeting Christians—as happens regularly —or Daesh targeting the Yazidis. Those are just two examples; there are many more across the middle east and the world.

    Freedom of religion or belief is a cornerstone human right, one that I adhere to and often speak about in this place, as do others. That cornerstone right also lays the foundation for other human rights; we cannot divorce the two—the two are married. Human rights and religious persecution go hand in hand. The prevalence of human trafficking in countries where freedom of religion or belief is not realised bears witness to that, as Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and others have indicated. Similarly, modern day slavery correlates with places where freedom of religion or belief is not realised. In Pakistan, religious minorities are ghettoised into squalid conditions, and forced to do jobs under the most disgraceful conditions just because they do not belong to the Sunni branch of Islam.

    I was very privileged to be in Pakistan in February as part of the delegation on behalf of the APPG for international freedom of religion or belief. We were able to witness first hand some of the ghettos that Christian groups and other small ethnic minorities live in. A garage or shed has better conditions than the places where they were living. They are pushed into small portions of land with squalid conditions and little or no opportunity for education and healthcare. They are a caste group, and it concerns me. The APPG will be doing a report on the visit, and hopefully we can make recommendations, highlight the negatives and positives and then look at the solutions. As always, I am solution based. Solutions are how we make things better.

    To conclude, I ask what the Government and the Minister are doing to mainstream freedom of religion or belief in their international development and aid policy? I am a great believer that if we are going to give aid we should tie it in with human rights, ensuring the opportunity for people to practice their religion, whatever that may be. That opportunity should be there, and when it comes to giving aid to Pakistan or any other country across the world, we should ensure that.

    Against a worldwide background of worsening religious-based persecution, how can the Government be sure that their programmes are successful when they operate religion-blind? I seek some assurance from the Minister; I hope she can give it to me. If not, I will be happy for her to follow through with a letter. I feel that sometimes the grasp of the civil servants and the Foreign Office officials may not be as real as we would like it to be. We seek some assurance on that. The most vulnerable and persecuted groups are often defined by their religious beliefs. We cannot divorce the two. They are very clear in my mind, and the evidential base would prove that. How are the Government—my Government—responding sensitively and effectively to this?

  • Priti Patel – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    Priti Patel – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    The speech made by Priti Patel, the Conservative MP for Witham, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I thank all Members here today, and particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone), who is such a stalwart campaigner and a champion of everything to do with tackling human trafficking. I remember the day he was elected as chair of the APPG, and his reaction, and the comments he has made today about someone with right-wing political views working with others, show that there really is no political divide on this issue. We are here to build bridges, and there is so much collective experience in this room in terms of people who have fought for the victims.

    The debate is timely. We have heard reference to the Illegal Migration Bill, and today we will also see the introduction of the Victims and Prisoners Bill in Parliament. I have been campaigning for a victims Bill for many years, and I stand alongside those who have stood up, compassionately, for decades, for victims of the most appalling and abhorrent crimes. My hon. Friend made an outstanding speech and unpacked many of the complex issues associated with human trafficking, some of which are often conflated.

    Our priority must always be the victims. My remarks will focus on dismantling human trafficking criminal networks, tackling modern-day slavery and supporting victims. Some of these matters touch on my time in Government, most recently in the Home Office, but also in International Development. Many colleagues will know some of the work we have collectively done and what we have achieved in the past.

    Taking action on human trafficking and modern-day slavery requires continued focus, both at home, which is incredibly important, and abroad. As has been noted in the debate, there is ongoing legislation in this House, and future legislation coming. This is both a domestic and an international issue.

    Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)

    Does my right hon. Friend share my concern that the fact that modern slavery has become part of the debate on the Illegal Migration Bill, which is before the House, means that we are forgetting some of the most vulnerable victims in our society right now? I particularly highlight the cuckooing of people with learning disabilities, who are perhaps the most discriminated community in our society. If we let the debate continue to be seen through the prism of migration, we will be letting down the most vulnerable.

    Priti Patel

    My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If I may, Mr Betts, I would reflect on the fact that, when I was Home Secretary, we saw the most appalling act of people trafficking, in a lorry in my hon. Friend’s constituency; that was the Purfleet incident, and 39 individuals—victims—passed away. It was one of the most horrific incidents, but we have had strong criminal prosecutions, and other work has taken place. I will come to that in a minute.

    On my hon. Friend’s point, cuckooing, children being exploited through drug gangs, and other vulnerable people have dominated much of my work over three and a half years. There is a fundamental link here: criminal gangs showing contempt and disregard for human life and dignity. This is a big tragedy, which we are all here discussing today.

    The latest figures from the ILO estimate that in 2021, 28 million people worldwide were forced into labour and 22 million were forced into marriages. These issues are more prevalent than ever today, despite the fact that we think the world and society have moved on and there is greater awareness. That 50 million is more than the population of Spain, so we should just think about the scale of the challenge we face. The ILO also estimated that that number had increased by 10 million between 2016 and 2021. That demonstrates the nature of the criminality, which my hon. Friend touched on, and that is why we have to be relentless.

    I recognise the Home Office footprint in this as well. We do need an anti-slavery commissioner; there are reasons why that was delayed last year, which are mainly down to the changes in Government that took place more than once. In reality, however, this should be a whole-of-Government effort. That is why my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), who deserves every credit and tribute for the work she led on securing the Modern Slavery Act 2015, was fundamental in this area because she recognised that. During my time in the Department for International Development, we worked internationally on this matter, and I had the privilege of working with my right hon. Friend when she was Prime Minister to develop that call to action to end forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. Under her leadership, that went straight to the United Nations General Assembly in 2017, and its impact was significant. It was a major moment for the United Kingdom and one we should be proud of. It brought together 37 countries to introduce commitments to strengthen law enforcement activity, galvanise international co-operation and support victims. We rightly funded that and put aid into that. That investment helped tackle modern-day slavery upstream in transit countries, tackling trafficking at the source. It absolutely shows how development assistance safeguards people and safeguards people’s lives. Over recent years, because this is no longer integrated in the way it once was, we have gone backwards and, with that, our international standing on this issue has also regressed. Sadly, I do think this is right.

    There are many issues around illegal migration that rightly need to be tackled, and the Government have to find all the right ways to do that. That is why, through the Nationality and Borders Act last year, we brought in temporary protection measures because it is right that we give the care and support to genuine victims. This was down to hon. Friends who spent time with me as Home Secretary, including my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough and others, who made this case. I worked with the Centre for Social Justice on this matter, and the various commissioners obviously made this point clearly.

    In the interests of time, I want to make two quick points. We must work comprehensively and thoroughly to bring offenders to justice, and our laws are too weak on this—they really are. On the level of prosecutions, there was a targeted measure in the Nationality and Borders Act last year to ensure that small boat pilots would be focused on for prosecution, obviously through the right way. Our National Crime Agency, which my hon. Friend mentioned, deserves great credit. Much of the work it does is based on securing intelligence information that can be disclosed only in court for prosecution purposes. The agency’s work in this country must be reinforced and bolstered at every single level.

    My last point is about supporting the victims. They are victims of horrendous and heinous crimes. I am delighted that the Victims and Prisoners Bill will come forward today—I have been going on about it for over a decade. This is where we must work together to ensure that the victims of human trafficking and modern-day slavery are given support in the criminal justice system, and that the laws are strengthened to ensure the prosecutions take place. My hon. Friend highlighted the frankly derisory figures on sentences and prosecutions. We must change that, and this House can do that.

    The other area to touch on for victims is statutory services. The care for adults is good, but we have institutional state failure on the approach for children where local authorities are allowing children to abscond. It then becomes a policing issue, and it should not just be about the police. Our statutory services must step up. Mental health services, housing services and trauma-informed approaches must be embedded.

    I know the Minister has been working assiduously on this issue, but we must start to hear further details on what work is taking place across Government to ensure that victims are given support and to bring forward the reforms required to give them justice.

  • Sarah Champion – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    Sarah Champion – 2023 Speech on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

    The speech made by Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, in the House of Commons on 29 March 2023.

    May I put on record my deep thanks to the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone)? He has championed this cause for years, when many others really did not want to. We are talking about a dirty and disgusting business—and it is a business. I am grateful for all that he has done and continues to do to put the profile of this awful crime exactly where it needs to be.

    I rise to raise my concerns about the Government’s current approach to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking, particularly through the so-called Illegal Migration Bill; regrettably, it completed its Committee stage yesterday, which makes today’s debate timely. I could have chosen so many topics. The hon. Member spoke about prostituted women; I completely agree that we have to stop the pull factor, which is the fact that it is still legal to buy sex in this country. I could have spoken about child sexual exploitation, which unfortunately I know far too much about, or child criminal exploitation. The hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) spoke a little about child labour in the supply chain, and children working at brick kilns. I was in Nepal with the International Development Committee a couple of weeks ago, and we met those very children. I am really proud that some of our foreign aid goes on supporting those children and letting them know their rights, and, most importantly, on working with the employers, because it tends to be small businesses that still use children in modern slavery. Our aid goes on educating employers and encouraging them to change their practices.

    However, let me focus on the UK. Many professionals are troubled by the Government’s rhetoric, as well as the Illegal Migration Bill, which conflates modern slavery with migration, asylum and smuggling. The International Justice Mission states that conflating those issues risks hindering efforts to assist survivors and ensure traffickers are held to account. It only makes this problem worse.

    I was very proud in 2015, when the UK was genuinely a world leader in tackling modern slavery, with the unprecedented Modern Slavery Act. I was on the Bill Committee, and it was genuinely world-changing. People came from all over the world to see what we were doing, although the hon. Member for Wellingborough is right that children were always an omission and not supported properly.

    That pride feels light years away from where we are today. The measures in the Illegal Migration Bill, particularly in relation to modern slavery survivors, are deeply disturbing, cruel and lacking in compassion and common sense. I cannot imagine how terrifying it must be to be trafficked to this county against one’s will, as well as, in many cases, being a victim of sexual exploitation or modern slavery.

    We must remember that modern slavery and trafficking also happen in the UK. I referred to child exploitation: in Rotherham, the police innovatively used trafficking legislation, because it says that moving a person from one side of the street to the other is trafficking. We have strong legislation in place for that; it is just not being enforced as often as it should be, and nor is the national referral mechanism. I was disappointed in the early days of that scheme that many local authorities were not referring local people into that support network.

    The Government now want to refuse vulnerable people vital protections that we put into law less than eight years ago. The Illegal Migration Bill would disqualify victims of trafficking and modern slavery from protections under the national referral mechanism and deny crucial support to those who arrived in the UK through irregular means, allowing them to be removed entirely from this country. That includes child victims of trafficking whose family members meet those conditions.

    Almost 90% of modern slavery claims are found to be valid, meaning that these new provisions will remove support from genuine victims who need our help. The reality is that this will not prevent traffickers, and it certainly will not help victims of modern slavery. I am especially worried about the impact that this will have on victims and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that survivors are unlikely to report crimes of sexual and gender-based violence or trafficking, without legal protections or safe reporting mechanisms that protect them from immigration exposure.

    If the Government really want to stop the boats, they must first protect victims and survivors of trafficking, slavery and sexual exploitation, to end the traffickers’ business model. Instead, this Bill will punish only the victims. Case studies from the University of Birmingham’s SEREDA project demonstrate why survivors of sexual violence, in particular, must be exempt from removal to other so-called safe countries.

    Samiah fled Algeria after being raped by an influential man in the Algerian army and, facing pressure from her family, married her rapist. Her sister sold her jewellery to pay for Samiah’s passage to safety. Samiah passed through France on the way to the UK but, given the large Algerian population there, and the threat from both her family and the man who attacked her, she did not feel France was safe enough to offer her protection.

    When she arrived in the UK, she had no idea of her rights, and slept rough in Victoria station. She was befriended by a man who gave her alcohol for the first time in her life, and she was raped again, becoming pregnant. She was taken in by a stranger, who helped her find a lawyer, and told she should put in a claim for asylum. Samiah’s case illustrates why it is vital that victims of sexual and gender-based violence must have access to support, no matter how they arrive here. Not all forced migrants feel safe in the first safe country they pass through. The vulnerability of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence will be preyed on even more without the relative protections of the asylum and national referral mechanisms.

    The previous Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner warned repeatedly that denying trafficking victims support makes it harder, not easier, to catch criminal traffickers. Why will the Minister not listen to experts, and protect the victims, rather than the traffickers? Such vast changes to our modern slavery policy should not take place at a time when the UK’s new anti-slavery commissioner has not been appointed. With the role remaining vacant for almost a year, it is deeply concerning that we have lost an independent voice, expert insight and essential scrutiny of the UK’s approach to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking.

    Will the Minister confirm in her response when the new Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner will be appointed? Will the Home Office commit to consult the new commissioner before pushing ahead with these new measures? I am proud that Labour voted against some of the measures in the Bill, because we are on the side of the victims. I am one of those people from the left who want to support victims, but I am also one of those people from the left who want to stop the business model of these traffickers and modern slavery owners. We have to do all we can, in a united way, to make that happen.

  • King Charles III – 2023 Speech at the German Bundestag

    King Charles III – 2023 Speech at the German Bundestag

    The speech made by King Charles III at the Bundestag in Germany on 30 March 2023.

    Delivered in German:

    Mr President, President of the Bundestag, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    It is a great honour to be here today. It means a great deal to both my wife and myself that we have been invited to Germany on my first overseas tour as Sovereign, and it is a particular honour to be here with you where I wish to renew the pledge of friendship between our nations. There could be few better places to do so than in this building which, in its very stones, tells the history of the twentieth century. It is, in itself, a demonstration of what binds our two countries. Burnt in 1933, severely damaged in 1945, in the 1990s it was rebuilt by a British architect to be the Parliament of a re-united democratic Germany; its iconic glass dome a symbol of the transparency and accountability of parliament, from which the citizens, looking down, can literally oversee their politicians at work. Democracy in action!

    My wife and I last had the honour of joining you in this chamber in November 2020, on the occasion of Volkstrauertag. Seventy-five years after the Second World War, it was of great importance to me to stand with Germans in honouring all victims of war and tyranny, and to be the first members of my family to participate in those deeply moving commemorations.

    That you invited us to join you on that occasion showed how far the United Kingdom and Germany had travelled together in friendship and in peace – just as was demonstrated so powerfully 2 years before, by your presence in London, Mr President, for the centenary of the end of the First World War.

    Delivered in English:

    Today, it gives me particular pride to be with you once again, now as King, and to renew the special bond of friendship between our countries.

    This friendship meant so much to my beloved Mother, The late Queen, who often spoke of the 15 official visits she made to Germany, including her 5 state visits.

    The first of those, in 1965, came when our continent was still deeply scarred by war, and the trauma of conflict. Hers was the wartime generation, and like my father, The Queen had served in uniform. That my parents’ 11-day tour of Germany should prove to be a pivotal moment in the reconciliation between our nations was, therefore, a matter of great personal significance to them both.

    Delivered in German:

    My Mother understood the immense achievement that reconciliation represented, and in returning to Germany time and again, she was determined to play her own part. It is, perhaps, for this reason that Her late Majesty won a particular place in the affection of the German people.

    My family and I were so deeply touched by the reaction in Germany to my Mother’s death. The tributes offered in this chamber, the Union Flag projected onto the Brandenburg Gate, and the thousands of messages in condolence books across the country, offered a tremendous comfort in our time of grief. On behalf of my entire family, I can only offer our heartfelt thanks for the extraordinary kindness that the people of Germany showed to us.

    Mr President, President of the Bundestag, since I last spoke in this building the scourge of war is back in Europe. The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has inflicted the most unimaginable suffering on so many innocent people. Countless lives have been destroyed; freedom and human dignity have been trampled in the most brutal way. The security of Europe has been threatened, together with our democratic values.

    The world has watched in horror – but we have not stood by. Even as we abhor the appalling scenes of destruction, we can take heart from our unity – in defence of Ukraine, of peace and freedom.

    Germany and the United Kingdom have shown vital leadership. As Europe’s 2 largest donors to Ukraine, we have responded with taking decisions which might previously have seemed unimaginable. Germany’s decision to send such significant military support to Ukraine is remarkably courageous, important and appreciated.

    Today, our pilots are flying side-by-side on joint operations over our Baltic allies. Here, in Germany, our armies have established a joint Amphibious Engineer Battalion, which I will visit later today. Germany is the only nation in the world with which the United Kingdom has such a joint unit, an extraordinary testament to the partnership we enjoy.

    Delivered in English:

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I can hardly begin to express the pride I feel in the strength of the partnership between our 2 countries. Germany, her people and distinctive culture have made such a profound impact on me over so many of my previous visits. Since I first came to Germany when I was just 13 years old, I have grown to become familiar with the different corners of this remarkable land.

    Like many British people, I have close personal ties here – in my case, cherished family relationships and associations that go back generations. For all of us, however, there are countless points of connection and common experience in the British-German story, which has unfolded over nearly 2 millennia.

    Throughout the Middle Ages, the renowned Hanseatic League traded goods from Lübeck and Hamburg to ports up and down the English coast, establishing a trading partnership which underpins our shared prosperity to this day.

    Where goods travelled, ideas travelled too. Our people came to be inspired by each other’s example.

    Delivered in German:

    We developed a profound admiration of one another’s literature and music, and it is not surprising, therefore, that German was the first language into which Shakespeare was translated. The first Shakespeare Association in the world was established in 1864 – not in England, but in Weimar.

    In just a few weeks’ time, the astonishing music of Georg Friedrich Handel – who was born a German, and died British – will once again soar through Westminster Abbey at the Coronation, just as it has at every Coronation since that of my 7 times great grandfather, King George II, in 1727.

    Delivered in English:

    Throughout the centuries, people have travelled back and forth between our lands. In the 19th century, many Britons fell in love with Germany whilst on the ‘Grand Tour’. William Turner’s mesmerising paintings of the Rhine sparked in his countrymen the ambition to see those landscapes for themselves – a demand later met by Thomas Cook, the pioneer of tourism, who would organise his first foreign trip along the Rhine, with stops at Cologne, Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Baden-Baden.

    Today millions of Britons visit Germany each year, just as millions of Germans travel to our shores. Britons come to admire Berlin’s vibrant culture and nightlife, making up Europe’s largest visitor group to this wonderful city. So we are still admiring of each other’s culture; dependent upon each other’s economies; and inspired by each other’s ideas. More recent generations may think as readily of The Beatles or Kraftwerk, as they do of Brahms or Byron, but the web of cultural connections is as strong as ever.

    And perhaps most importantly, for the last 50 years we have laughed together – both at each other, and with each other. And while Miss Sophie’s “The same procedure as every year, James?” does not – I hope – give a very accurate impression of modern Britain, it is, I know, an integral part of a German Happy New Year. In Britain, Germany’s comedy ambassador Henning Wehn has given us an understanding of German quirks, as Monty Python brought our own here. Like all old friends at moments, the warmth of our relationship allows a small smile at each other’s expense.

    Delivered in German:

    In some areas there are rivalries, of course, and I think especially of our encounters on the football pitch.

    Against this backdrop, it was particularly special last year that the England women’s football team – the Lionesses – could win the Euros against Germany last year. Beyond their sporting success, both teams have promoted gender equality in such an impressive way. In so doing, they inspired a generation – in Britain, Germany and far beyond.

    Delivered in English:

    This is just one example of how our countries, together, can offer a compelling example to the world. There are, I am delighted to say, very many more. Faced with so many shared challenges, the United Kingdom and Germany are together providing leadership to secure our shared future.

    Today, the United Kingdom and Germany are Europe’s 2 largest producers of power from offshore wind. Many German firms are involved in the production and erection of turbines off the British coast. The North Sea, across which our people have travelled and traded for generations, is soon to be the site of a new interconnector allowing us directly to trade electricity.

    Our countries are both accelerating the expansion of our hydrogen economies, the fuel which could transform our future and I am looking forward to seeing Hamburg’s plans to use hydrogen in its efforts to become a fully sustainable port.

    These innovations are vital in combatting the existential challenge of climate change and global warming which confronts us all, and as such I was delighted to meet participants of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue yesterday to hear how countries are accelerating this transition.

    Delivered in German:

    For a long time, British and German scientific research has been leading the way. Our countries rank in the top 2 in Europe for founding successful new technology start-ups. Our universities and research institutions collaborate more often with each other than any other two countries in Europe.

    This helps to explain why a Berlin-based company has pioneered in London the use of lampposts for electric vehicle charging points, while in Berlin you can book a ride in a fully electric, London-style taxi.

    Internationally, too, we are working closely together. We helped initiate the Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa at the climate conference in Glasgow. A further such partnership with Indonesia was the result of much work during Germany’s G7 Presidency.

    Delivered in English:

    Mr President, President of the Bundestag, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    This essential partnership between our 2 countries is built of the expertise, dedication and ingenuity of countless people in both Germany and the United Kingdom. To them all, I can only offer my sincere and heartfelt gratitude.

    Tomorrow, we will once again stand with the people of Germany in solemn remembrance. In Hamburg, I will pay my respects at the memorial to the Kindertransporte, which, 85 years ago, saved the lives of more than 10,000 Jewish children from Nazism, and gave them safe passage to new lives in Britain. I will also join you, Mr President, and you, First Mayor Tschentscher, in remembering those who perished in the Allied bombing of Hamburg in 1943.

    Delivered in German:

    Heeding the lessons of the past is our sacred responsibility, but it can only be fully discharged through a commitment to our shared future. Together we must be vigilant against threats to our values and freedoms, and resolute in our determination to confront them. Together we must strive for the security, prosperity and wellbeing that our people deserve.

    In the long and remarkable story of our 2 countries, there are many chapters yet unwritten. Let us fill these with the restless pursuit of a better tomorrow. The legacy of our past, and the great promise of our future, demand nothing less. Thank you for your attention.

  • King Charles III – 2023 Speech at the State Banquet at Bellevue Castle in Berlin

    King Charles III – 2023 Speech at the State Banquet at Bellevue Castle in Berlin

    The speech made by King Charles III in Berlin on 29 March 2023.

    IN GERMAN

    Mr President, it is hard to know how to thank you enough for those tremendously kind words, as well as for your unforgettable hospitality this evening in such a magnificent setting.

    It is wonderful to be in such large company tonight. It is nice of you all, not to have left me alone with a ‘Dinner for One!’

    My wife and I have been so deeply touched by the warmth of the welcome that has been extended to us in Germany – just as we have on each of our previous visits to this very special country.

    Remarkably, I realize I have visited Germany more than 40 times – a measure of the importance of this relationship, of course, but also, I fear, of just how long I have been around!

    From each visit I have retained the most treasured memories, which I recall with great affection.

    IN ENGLISH

    I think, Mr President, of the particular kindness and friendship which you and Frau Büdenbender showed to both my wife and myself on our last visits to Berlin in 2019 and 2020.

    I also think fondly of the time my wife and I sampled Bavarian sausages at a farmers’ market in Munich, and found ourselves drinking beer and waltzing around at the Hofbräuhaus! I think I can understand why St Boniface, an English monk, who is famous for having preached in Germany, is also a patron saint of brewers!

    I recall, in particular, how much I have learnt from my visits over the years about organic and agro-ecological farming, and I credit German expertise with greatly improving my own farms and soil. Indeed, I think we all have something to learn from Germany’s enduring respect for what Goethe called ‘the sublime language of nature’.

    Over all these years, and in so many ways, I have been struck by the warmth of the friendship between our nations and by the vitality of our partnership in countless areas.

    It was, Mr President, a friendship which mattered greatly to my mother, The late Queen, who cared deeply about the bond between our 2 countries. I did want to thank you all, once again, for the profoundly touching messages of support and affection we received from so many people in Germany following the sadness of her death last year. Ladies and Gentlemen, your kindness meant more to my family and myself than I can possibly express.

    The relationship between Germany and the United Kingdom matters greatly to me, too, Mr President, and I am more convinced than ever of its enduring value to us all. It means so much to us that my wife and I could come to Germany as part of this very first overseas tour of my reign. I can only assure you, that throughout the time that is granted to me as King, I will do all I can to strengthen further the connections between us.

    In this, I know that I will be supporting the extraordinary efforts of countless people who contribute so much to the relationship between the United Kingdom and Germany.

    As I look around the room this evening, I see such talented and dedicated individuals who embody the breadth of our partnership in so many fields – engineering, technology, science, the environment, the arts, education and so much more.

    Our countries are working together to promote global health, to help developing countries overcome their challenges and prosper, and to advance the urgent and vital journey towards net zero.

    And, of course, we stand side-by-side in protecting and advancing our shared democratic values. This is epitomised so clearly today as we stand together with Ukraine in defence of freedom and sovereignty in the face of unprovoked aggression. In this regard, I did want to pay a particular tribute to Germany’s extraordinary hospitality in hosting over one million Ukrainian refugees. This, it seems to me, so powerfully demonstrates the generosity of spirit of the German people.

    IN GERMAN

    Mr President, Germany and the United Kingdom are deeply invested in each other’ futures. I am utterly convinced that the connections between us will grow ever stronger as, together, we pursue a more sustainable, prosperous and secure future. Perhaps the Ash tree that I planted in your beautiful garden this afternoon might, in some small way, offer a symbol for the growth and future flourishing of our partnership.

    I hope, with all my heart, that my wife and I live long enough to return to this wonderful city, to see how our tree has grown, and to continue to play our part in this cherished friendship between our 2 nations. Allow me to raise a toast: to you, Mr President and Frau Büdenbender, and to a friendship which is not only heartfelt, but in the truest sense of the word, sustainable. Cheers!