Clause 113 - traffic in prostitution
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
5:45 pm
Mr Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
The wording in the amendment includes elements such as coercion. As the Minister rightly said, there would have to be proof that that existed. I wondered whether that was not perhaps an important part of not criminalising individuals whose behaviour, however much one may disagree with it, should not be criminalised. Two individuals might be engaged in an enterprise in which one of them acts as a prostitute in another state where that is entirely legal. In some American states, people work together as a business partnership. One can have views about the morality of that, but the present drafting of the Bill would unjustly render that individual subject to criminal prosecution.
If there is no coercion, the arrangement is entirely voluntary and the prostitution is taking place in a state where it is legal, should that be rendered illegal? I understand the drive to make illegal the coercive behaviour, but whether uncoerced behaviour should be rendered illegal would not be a problem under the wording in the amendment, but it may be a problem under the existing wording.