Clause 49 - Extent

Modern Slavery Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:00 pm on 14 October 2014.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Karen Bradley Karen Bradley The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 3:00, 14 October 2014

I beg to move amendment 21, in clause 49, page 31, line 13, at end insert—

‘( ) Her Majesty may by Order in Council provide for any of the provisions of this Act to extend, with or without modifications, to any of the Channel Islands or to the Isle of Man.’

This amendment enables provisions of the Bill to be extended to any of the Channel Islands or to the Isle of Man, by Order in Council.

Amendment 21 inserts into the Bill a permissive extent clause, enabling the Bill’s provisions to be extended to any of the Channel Islands or to the Isle of Man, by Order in Council. It is a simple provision which will ensure that the Crown dependencies are able to take up the provisions of this important Bill into their law.

Photo of Michael Connarty Michael Connarty Labour, Linlithgow and East Falkirk

I raised a point in the debate on ship transport about the effect on Scotland and the fact that traffickers using sea transport would not respect the lines in the sea. I inquired of the Minister whether we had an arrangement with the Scottish Government. I would have thought that in this case the Sewel convention would have taken into account amendments required that would affect Scotland, or are we going to do that for England and expect them to negotiate somehow? At the moment, I do not think the Scottish Government, given their temperament and temper—having been defeated in the referendum—will be very co-operative. I wonder whether any exploration has been made of the point raised. How do we deal with the question of this only going to the sea limits of England, Wales and now the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man? How has that been dealt with?

Photo of Mark Pritchard Mark Pritchard Conservative, The Wrekin

Order. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is not in the wrong debate, but he touched on this issue earlier and I said he would have an opportunity to speak about it in the main Chamber, which is discussing devolution. Will he stick to the parameters of the Bill?

Photo of Michael Connarty Michael Connarty Labour, Linlithgow and East Falkirk

The parameters of the Bill are exactly the question. This is not a question of devolution; it is a question of a procedure that is available in the House for dealing with matters that would then cross into the jurisdiction of the devolved Parliament of Scotland. I raised a serious question at the time, which was not just to score points: how do we deal with the fact that this law will not run? There is no equivalent law in Scotland at the moment, where the Parliament is considering Jenny Marra’s Bill, which has nothing in it relating to the points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North. I raised a serious question about how we deal with that. Are we just going to leave it hanging there, or have the Government been in discussions about the question of a Sewel amendment at some later time or a statutory arrangement to ensure that this does in fact carry beyond the sea border of England?

Photo of Karen Bradley Karen Bradley The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department

I was going to come on to those points in the stand part debate, as I was merely proposing the amendment. However, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the Bill currently extends only to England and Wales. I reassure him that we continue to work closely with the devolved Administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland to co-ordinate the fight against modern slavery. During those discussions, we are assessing whether any of the Bill’s provisions should be extended during its passage. To ensure that other legislation remains coherent, any amendment or repeal made by the Bill will have the same extent as the provision affected, except where explicitly stated. My officials and I speak regularly with the devolved Administrations, looking at  practical ways to work together on ensuring that the Bill stamps out modern slavery across the whole of the United Kingdom, not just in England and Wales.

Amendment 21 agreed to.

Clause 49, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 50 and 51 ordered to stand part of the Bill.