Clause 15
11:30 am
Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the Minister for his reply. I would be interested to know under what circumstances the Government could not ensure that the victims of this essentially non-consenting offence and exploitation of children were helped other than by being arrested or engaged by the criminal justice system, as he put it.
Can the Minister give me a scenario where the support for children—whether that involves social services or exit strategies—is so inadequate that we have to rely on the criminalisation of those victims? Will he write to me and set that out so that I can consider the position further? If he cannot do that, he has not addressed the main concern and the obverse effect by which children may be deterred from coming forward for fear of prosecution under this or other prostitution offences, thanks to the message sent out by this law.
I wish to reflect on what the Minister has said, because it might be appropriate to table a similar amendment so that the House can take a view on it. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.