Speeches by Murray.

“Thank you. Looking forward rather than retrospectively, there have been a few announcements by the Government in recent months. For example, grooming is going to be made an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offenders—”

“And to the Chair’s question: retrospectively, do you think these things would have made a difference in Telford had they been in place at the time?”

“People smugglers do not just put the immigration system in jeopardy; they exploit the vulnerable and they put lives in danger. There is nothing progressive about allowing the vulnerable to be exploited by these smugglers. Does the Minister agree that we should be straining every sinew to crack down on these gangs and c…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for making that really important point. I remember reading about that case; it is one of the most horrific ones, but there are so many horrific cases of modern slavery. It is taking place on every high street in Britain, and we have to be completely vigilant about finding it everywhere. Today, I …”

“I pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Dame Karen Bradley), both for securing this debate and for her legacy in this field. As the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, her ongoing commitment to the issue is palpable, and I look forward to working with her on it in the years ahead. We are 10…”

“My hon. Friend is making an important point about industries such as takeaways being sites of modern slavery. In my local council, East Lothian, there has been a pilot scheme looking specifically at the takeaway industry, and at what regulations local authorities can put in place to allow them to enter premises to see …”

“What would you do about it? Is it just more decision makers?”

“Emma, you have already mentioned the devolved decision making pilot. Do you think that offers lessons in how we can improve the quality of decisions as well as the speed?”

“The NRM is UK-wide, and there is a UK Act of Parliament, but in Scotland there is the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. I do not think that the Salvation Army has the contract in Scotland—is that right?”

“Do you have any reflections on the difference in how this works between Scotland and England?”

“What we always hear from providers in Scotland when it comes to children is that it is hard to explain to service providers why children should be referred to the NRM in Scotland, because they do not get anything extra, given what they would get for child protection. Do you agree? Do you think it applies UK-wide?”

“Even down here.”

“Caroline, it is the Crown Office in Scotland who do the prosecutions. Do you have a view on how it is different?”

“I want to ask about the massive increase in decision waiting times in recent years. First, what is your assessment of why those waiting times have got so bad? Secondly, what remediation would you propose? Do we just need more decision makers, or is there a more structural issue in the NRM?”

“To be clear, you are saying that it is the training of existing first-responder officers that is the issue—not that you would like to see more first-responder organisations. You alluded to the health system.”

“While we are talking about FROs, we had the Home Secretary before us in December and she said that the NRM system has fundamentally become a bit stuck. What do you think is driving that? We have not updated the list of first responders since the Act came in. Do you think it merits revision? When you are talking about t…”

“As we know, working on modern slavery in the UK can be a bit of an alphabet soup. You have Border Force, UKVI, GLAA, NCA—and that is just within the Home Office. Then you have all the police forces, local authorities and the devolved Administrations. How effective are we at cross-Government working in the UK, and where…”

“I want to ask about the cross-Government work. We obviously have the establishment of the new Fair Work Agency coming down the track. Do you have any thoughts on its role in facilitating cross-Government working on this? You may not, because it has not come into existence yet.”

“Does the Minister share my astonishment at the shadow Home Secretary’s argument given that the Conservatives wasted tens of millions of pounds on accommodation that could not be used and billions on hotels? The state of the asylum system that we inherited is unbelievable. Will the Minister commit to reforming that seri…”

“I got the wrong name; apologies. I wanted to ask for your view on the Government’s new proposal for a specific offence of child criminal exploitation.”