SCOTLAND needs its own laws to fight human trafficking and slavery, a Labour MSP will tell members of the House of Commons today.
Jenny Marra is to give evidence to a committee set up by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to draft the UK Government's Modern Day Slavery Bill.
Ms Marra said she welcomes the plans but argues that as services involved such as the police are devolved, Scotland should have its own specific legislation.
She drew attention to the release of three women last week from a house in London after being allegedly held as slaves for 30 years and said legislation to address trafficking and slavery was timely. A couple have been arrested over the allegations.
She said: "With the introduction of Modern Day Slavery Bill in Westminster we now have new anti-trafficking legislation going through in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England and Wales, and it is important we work together to make each Bill the best it can be."
In September Ms Marra launched proposals for the Human Trafficking (Scotland) Bill, which is out to consultation until December 6.
Currently, human trafficking offences in Scotland fall under two separate laws - the UK Asylum and Immigration Act and the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act.
Ms Marra believes bringing the offences into a single law and giving a new criminal definition of trafficking would make it easier to bring perpetrators to justice.
More than 90 people were trafficked into Scotland in 2011, according to the most recent figures, with most forced to work in the sex industry.
The Scottish Government held a summit on human trafficking last October where it agreed to introduce a new statutory aggravation offence, which will require courts to take into account any link between any other offence and people-trafficking activity.
The Scottish Government does not appear to be in favour of separate Scottish legislation.
While it has said it will look carefully at Ms Marra's proposals, Kenny MacAskill, the justice minister, has indicated he would "explore with the UK Government the possibility" of the UK Bill covering Scotland. A Scottish Government spokeswoman said last night: "We note Ms Marra's consultation on a proposal for a Bill and will give careful consideration to any Bill brought forward on human trafficking."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article