Thursday

I asked a supplementary question about the two Pakistanis whose successful appeal to SIAC against the decision to deport them was not appealed by the Crown. It was rightly considered that no point of law had arisen, on which an appeal might have been founded, and SIAC left the door ajar for their deportation later, if their two co-conspirators who had returned to Pakistan voluntarily were not subjected to torture or cruel or degrading treatment.

Then I asked a question about prostitution on behalf of Navnit Dholakia, who had tabled it but was unavoidably absent, see www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldtoday/04.htm. A woman who was acquitted at Luton crown court with keeping a brothel on the grounds that sex services were offered at her bungalow in Bedfordshire by three other women. It is widely accepted that women in small groups are ten times safer than women providing sex services on their own, and I was asking the Government (1) if the CPS would issue guidance to the police not to prosecute women in these circumstances and (2) to consult with stakeholders on how women providing sex services could be better protected, having regard to the successful changes in the law in New Zealand.