Lord Sentamu (CB)

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Alton of Liverpool, chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, together with his 11 fellow members of the committee, is to be congratulated on this insightful and timely report. The action on it has been delayed. Nevertheless, it is a very timely report. I, too, congratulate the noble Lord on securing the debate and, most importantly, on the masterful way in which he introduced it. The issues that the report raises are live issues. They are not something in the past; they are going on and on. Somehow, we have to find a way of stopping them. His Majesty’s Government’s response to the report is centred on the recommendations of the report. In my short contribution to the debate, I will ask questions on the Government’s response to the first and sixth recommendations. The first recommendation deals with UK domestic law. It recommends a new law that would ensure that the UK’s market is protected from goods tainted by forced labour. It would do this by clearly stating “that it is unlawful to import or sell goods linked to forced labour”. I Timothy 5:18 says: “For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward”— his wages and his hire Forced labour pays peanuts to its workers, almost treating them as if they were squirrels and less than human. That is what forced labour does to people. The challenge that His Majesty’s Government now face is that the Joint Committee on Human Rights asked for the new legislation to be introduced within one year of the publication of the report. The Government’s response was that there was a review. Can the Minister, whom I welcome most warmly to the Front Bench, tell your Lordships’ House where we are on this? My concern is that delay will result in the innocent becoming complicit in unlawful importing or selling of goods that are linked to forced labour. We all know that ignorance is not a defence. Furthermore, those who are carrying out forced labour have the time to find devious ways of getting away with it. If we do not do something, we are allowing them to get away with it. In all these areas where the reviews are announced in the report, who is persistently urging and chivvying the reviewers to complete the work? The time to act is now.