I support the hon. Gentleman. I welcome his repentance for his sins on previous criminal justice Bills and his confession—it is good for the soul and it is certainly good for the Committee. As a prompt, he clearly read my Second Reading speech, in which I raised the issue. On that occasion, no doubt due to the way in which matters get wound up, I received no response. The problem is not that the matter has not been placed on record, because I did so on Second Reading.

I part company with the hon. Gentleman because when I first looked through the Bill, bearing in mind that we were trying to find a consistent approach to child sex offences and their gravity—we have been wrestling throughout with the minimum consistency of approach that Parliament wants—my first reaction to such offences was that life imprisonment could be the correct maximum. I shall not argue that, but if we start from the premise that that is a possible argument—I accept the hon. Gentleman's argument as to why life imprisonment might not be appropriate—I do not resile from the fact that the maximum sentence in the clause does not mark the gravity of the offence, for the reasons given by the hon. Gentleman.

For my part—I hope that those in the Chamber will agree—I believe that in some circumstances clause 17 is akin to clause 15, which refers to arranging or facilitating the commissioning of a child sex offence. It seems to me that someone could easily be involved on the internet in the activities to which clause 15 refers. Seeking to groom for the purpose of introducing the

victim to others or for financial gain is serious and a seven-year sentence would not begin to meet that offence. One of the cautions from those who suggested the seven-year maximum is that the offence is new and we do not know how it will operate, so let us not go over the top at the beginning. I understand that that is the logic for a seven-year term of imprisonment rather than 14 years in clause 15.