The Chairperson (Mr Givan): I welcome Simon Rogers, deputy director of the protection and organised crime unit, and Julie Wilson, head of the human trafficking team. You are both very welcome, as usual, to the Committee. Hansard will record the session, and we will publish the report in due course. At this point, I think, I am handing over to you, Simon.
Mr Simon Rogers (Department of Justice): Thanks very much. As always, we are grateful for the opportunity to brief members on the content of the Minister's proposed legislative consent memorandum, which seeks to extend to Northern Ireland certain provisions in the Modern Slavery Bill.
You will be aware that progress has been made on the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill. We await Further Consideration Stage on that, with a date yet to be set. Modern Slavery Bill measures that we wish to see extended to Northern Ireland under this LCM are intended to complement that Bill and to ensure that we have in legislation the most comprehensive and effective package of measures possible.
As the Chair mentioned, there are three elements. You have previously been briefed on two of those, which are the anti-slavery commissioner and the maritime powers. The paper we have sent you sets out an additional area, which is to tackle trafficking and forced labour by enhancing transparency in commercial supply chains. We had hoped and, indeed, expected that the Modern Slavery Bill's Report Stage would take place in October. That would have enabled us to be here today talking about an LCM in front of you. Unfortunately, that stage did not take place in the Commons until yesterday, and the Bill has only, therefore, been settled on those points. We are finalising our draft legislative consent motion, and we hope to lay it in the Assembly early next week. It will, however, reflect what is in the paper you received on 28 October, and I will touch on a couple of points in a moment.
In looking at the proposals in the legislative consent motion, the Minister has engaged with the Home Secretary but has also made sure that those provisions reflect Northern Ireland's circumstances and needs. The written paper sets out the three areas, and I should draw the Committee's attention to a few aspects. I will, first, deal with maritime enforcement powers. The Modern Slavery Bill included provisions to create new enforcement powers to tackle human trafficking and slavery offences — it is only those offences — at sea. At that point, they were limited in extent to England and Wales. Given the particular challenges posed by jurisdictional boundaries at sea, the Minister has been engaging with the Home Secretary and the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice to develop a comprehensive package of enforcement powers to cover the whole of the United Kingdom. Amendments to create those powers were agreed yesterday in the Commons Report Stage.
In developing our NI-specific proposals, we have been mindful to preserve PSNI primacy within Northern Ireland waters in all but hot-pursuit situations. The Police Service must consent to operations into our waters. We have also ensured that appropriate accountability arrangements are in place where operations take place in our waters. As we previously informed the Committee, the Minister consulted the Chief Constable and the Policing Board on the proposals. They agreed that extension would be beneficial and would enhance our capacity to respond to those crimes. Taken in their entirety, the powers cover devolved and non-devolved matters. In due course, we will clearly be coming to the Assembly for powers in respect of devolved matters.
I turn now to the independent anti-slavery commissioner. We have briefed you on that and have made clear that the Minister's proposal is to extend the commissioner to Northern Ireland as an alternative to the Northern Ireland rapporteur, which is currently provided for under Lord Morrow's Bill. That approach received overwhelming support in our public consultation. The Minister believes that a commissioner operating across the United Kingdom would provide a much better model than a local rapporteur, with the ability to oversee all relevant bodies operating here, regardless of whether they were devolved. Cost should not necessarily be the driving consideration, but, in the current economic climate, it is obviously relevant, and a commissioner operating across the whole of the UK would offer economies of scale and greater value for money.
The paper sets out the detail. In short, the key issues are that there will be consultation with us on appointment and on the strategic plan and annual report. There will be new powers to allow each Administration to request ad hoc reports from the commissioner, and powers for the Minister to specify the public bodies in Northern Ireland that would have a duty to comply with a request for cooperation from the commissioner. We have been engaging closely with Lord Morrow and his team on that proposal, and Lord Morrow naturally wants to see the content of the LCM before agreeing that he will drop his Northern Ireland rapporteur from his Bill. We will, hopefully, give him the content of that LCM very shortly. We hope that that will be enough to reassure him that his now clause 26 could be dropped from his Bill at Further Consideration Stage.
The final area relates to the new provisions on enhancing transparency in supply chains. Given the large size of companies that will be affected by this clause, there will be very few in Northern Ireland. However, the Minister believes that a UK-wide response would be the most effective and appropriate way of legislating on the issue, and he is keen to see the provision extended here to ensure consistency of approach. It would place a requirement on commercial organisations operating in the UK and supplying goods or services to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement each financial year and to publish it on their website. The expectation is that the measure would capture approximately 1,000 of the largest organisations operating in the UK, but the detail of that would be established in regulations. There would be consultation with devolved Administrations and, importantly, with business. Business representatives were consulted by the Home Office on the statement, and there was broad support from them.
We believe that all three elements would further assist in strengthening the response to modern slavery and human trafficking here, and we will shortly seek the Committee's support for the proposed LCM. I am happy to take questions.
Mr Simon Rogers: He wants to see the provisions in black and white from us. As we had to wait for the Report Stage, which was only yesterday, we have not been able to provide that, but we certainly will be able to provide it in the next couple of days. From the contact we have had to date, we are hopeful that he will be sympathetic to what we are doing.
The Chairperson (Mr Givan): At that point, it will be referred to the Committee. Members are aware of the issues from previous discussions. We have to produce a short report.
No other points of clarity are needed, so, thank you very much, Simon and Julie.