Clause 61 - Sections 58 to 60: interpretation and jurisdiction
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
2:45 pm
Mr Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow, Labour)
I shall be brief. I may not have read the clause correctly. It defines relevant offences and who is caught under the provisions of clauses 58 to 60. Subsection (2) makes it clear that the offences in those clauses would apply to anything that was done in the UK, and to certain acts that were committed outside it. It is quite clear that offences such as arranging or facilitating travel within or out of the UK could be committed by someone outside the UK.
If I understand subsections (2) and (3) correctly, when taken together they imply that if something is done
''outside the United Kingdom, by a body incorporated under the law of a part of the United Kingdom or by an individual to whom subsection (3) applies''—
subsection (3) applies only to British citizens and nationals, and so forth—it would be difficult to do anything directly in respect of a foreign national who arranges and facilitates trafficking from outside the UK. If a person who previously did something outside the UK entered the UK, would what they had done outside the UK constitute an offence even if they did not do anything in the UK? Is there a loophole?