Member

On the issue of soliciting, in short, the Minister, my noble friend Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, referred to jurisdictional reach and other international implications. I understand these to be exercising Ministers and their advisers, and that they have committed to bringing forward the appropriate provisions on soliciting that do not breach commitments that we may have in that regard. However, with all due respect, I feel that these challenges have surfaced because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what the soliciting provision seeks to criminalise. It is the act here in the United Kingdom, in our jurisdiction, of soliciting or commissioning the creation of a non-consensual digitally produced sexually explicit photograph or film that is being criminalised. Were this provision to become law, it would be a crime no matter where in the world the image was created.