Clause 17 - Meeting a child following sexual grooming etc.
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I am very grateful for the support from both sides of the Committee in relation to the offence that we are creating; it is an important, groundbreaking offence, which recognises a modern problem.
I have listened carefully to the debate on the amendment. My hon. Friend the Member for Wirral, West, who is not with us at the moment, said that I had failed to respond to his speech on Second Reading. I humbly apologise for that; in the 15 minutes available to me, it was not possible to respond to every argument. However, he has had the opportunity to put his argument today.
We have talked today about sentencing issues that apply more widely than simply to the offence in question. The hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) said several times that if somebody is sentenced to seven years, they actually serve three and a half years and that if they are sentenced to 10 years, they do five years. That is a wider issue that does not apply simply to the offence in question. None the less, I recognise that that is a matter of debate.
The important points as far as I was concerned were made by the hon. Member for Mole Valley and my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar (Vera Baird), who emphasised the preparatory nature of the offence. That goes to the heart of what the offence is about. We are trying to prevent a serious sexual
assault on a child; the powers that we have at the moment do not allow us to intervene as we would like to prevent that most serious event from happening.
I should tell the hon. Member for Mole Valley that Liberty is not a member of the taskforce, though I understand that a senior figure in Liberty has attended meetings; so although not part of the taskforce it has made a contribution.
Some time ago, the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Mrs. Brooke) raised the issue of—
Mrs. Annette L. Brooke (Mid-Dorset and North Poole) indicated dissent.