The Lord Bishop of Chester

My Lords, I join others in welcoming the Minister to his seat. I hope that he will not mind my sharing that, before his introduction yesterday, we were chuckling that wandering about this place for the first time felt a bit like wandering around Hogwarts. My hope, if I may say so, is that he will fight as passionately for justice as the heroes of those stories. I am also not alone in welcoming this report wholeheartedly. I express my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and his colleagues for the extraordinarily good and profound work that has been done here. I am proud to be part of a nation that, 10 years ago, introduced—for the first time anywhere in the world, I believe—ground-breaking legislation. However, we have not gone far enough. This matters, morally, legally, economically and in terms of human rights. I suspect—to think of my day job—that I am preaching to choir in terms of the moral case for this. We have only to glimpse the basics of forced labour to see that this is not good enough. Although that is part of the problem: we do not glimpse it, and we do not have the public outrage that we need. Others will make the economic case far better than I could. I refer the House to the work of charities such as Unseen, which reckons that around £60 billion a year is added to the British economy by dealing with these issues. Imagine the effect of money being taken out of the criminal economy and put into the mainstream economy. If I may speak up for the Church Commissioners, I am glad that our responsible investment team has been working for a number of years on this. I would say that I am a bear of little brain, so my reflections are focused on two very clear questions. The first is how, in tackling this injustice, do we make sure that we do not transfer inequity from one group to another? I suspect that to most in this Chamber, it would make very little difference if 10% were added to the cost of a new sweater or other items of clothing, but it would matter hugely to many of the people I am privileged to serve. In researching this, I have been surprised and delighted to find that many of the most cost-effective clothing providers in our society today have some of the strongest policies in this regard. Can the Minister say what the Government are doing in response to these recommendations, but particularly in ensuring that cost is not added to the most impoverished parts of our economy? My second question, which has really absorbed me, is how do we raise public awareness of this issue, so that people know when there is forced labour in the supply chain when they go to buy a new pair of socks or whatever it happens to be? Where are the Greta Thunbergs or—if you are of a particular generation—the Bob Geldofs who will raise these things and raise public irritation to a point where we must do something about it, not only legislatively but by changing our society? This question matters morally, legally and economically. It matters to the very soul of our nation. I thank the committee for this report and urge the Government to respond.