What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Crown Prosecution Service in bringing prosecutions in cases of alleged human trafficking offences.

What her most recent assessment is of the effectiveness of the Crown Prosecution Service in prosecuting cases of alleged human trafficking.

The provisions of the Council of Europe convention improve training and guidance to front-line law enforcement officers and increase our ability to identify victims and bring more cases to justice. As more cases are investigated by the police, the CPS can improve the numbers of cases that are prosecuted. The figures for trafficking prosecutions over the past three years are as follows: 40 in 2006-07, 87 in 2007-08, and 114 in 2008-09.

In spite of the wholly unjustifiable attack on me by The Daily Telegraph that has resulted in my standing down at the next election, I want to reassure the House that I will continue to fight against the evils of human trafficking as long as I am here.

Is the Solicitor-General aware of the sentences given recently to two traffickers in Devon convicted of trafficking a 19-year-old girl from the Czech Republic? The judge gave one of them one year for running a brothel, and the other a year for trafficking and a year for running a brothel, even though the brothel had been running the trade with the Czech Republic for many years and in spite of the fact that the maximum sentence for trafficking is 14 years. Will the Solicitor-General therefore increase the training offered to judges—including Crown Court judges—as many have little experience of human trafficking cases or of the horrors of human trafficking for the young people concerned? The effect on victims is devastating, so can she ensure that traffickers are punished appropriately? One year is not enough.

We shall miss the hon. Gentleman enormously when he stands down. He has taken a powerful interest in this issue, and he has a lot to be proud of in the work that he has done in driving our agenda forward. I think that he may have raised the case to which he refers with other Ministers, and we have treated his inquiry as a request for me to consider whether the sentence may have been unduly lenient. I have sent for the papers, because the time expires very soon, and they should be with me today. If the case is referred, the Court of Appeal is likely to give some general guidance about the right approach for judges.

I too should like to pay tribute to my hon. Friend Mr. Steen for the way in which he chairs the all-party group on human trafficking and for keeping the matter to the fore. I also pay tribute to the Solicitor-General for what she has done, but does she agree that many in the CPS think that the law on human trafficking is so badly drafted that it is extremely difficult to get prosecutions? Would it be worth revisiting that law to see whether it could be better drafted?

I am not so sure that there is a recognition that the law is badly drafted, as the hon. Gentleman suggests, but of course we keep it under review as we go along. We implemented the terms of the convention only in April, and the national referral mechanism is being put in place now, which means that we have a way to go in increasing our understanding. Clearly, we will look at sentences if they are not proving adequate in the meantime, but prosecution levels do seem to be improving. I think that I am right in saying that the Director of Public Prosecutions is going to the all-party trafficking group in June, and the hon. Gentleman will be able to ask him detailed questions then.

May I join the Solicitor-General in paying tribute to the enormous work that Mr. Steen has done? No one has done more than he has in raising this issue, and that is why the Home Affairs Committee asked him to be a special adviser for our recent report on human trafficking. In that report, we called for an increase in funding for the Metropolitan police's human trafficking unit, because we cannot prosecute the perpetrators unless we catch them.

The Government, as we know, were ceasing funding for that unit. Yesterday, the Prime Minister, in answer to me, said that funding was going to be increased. Is this new money that is to be made available to the unit? If it is, that is a very good news story.

Order. May I appeal to the House? I have a duty to get down the Order Paper, and I cannot do that if there are many speeches encompassed in questions.

I have to be honest; I cannot tell my right hon. Friend whether it is new money or not, but I also heard what the Prime Minister said and it is obviously a welcome change of mind. I think we are starting to resource anti-trafficking better and better. We have recently given some more money to the POPPY project, which looks after victims of trafficking, and the UK Human Trafficking Centre is reasonably well resourced now and is becoming increasingly effective, so I think that we are funding more in the right direction now.

The Solicitor-General will know that many of the young women who are being trafficked and abused come from eastern Europe. What help are we getting from the Governments of the countries in eastern Europe, perhaps to prevent these young women from coming here, as a result of which they are trafficked and abused? Surely the countries of origin could give us some help.

Yes, I know that the UK Human Trafficking Centre is establishing a network of contacts in all the relevant countries from which the preponderance of victims comes. As with many other crimes, such as those involving drugs mules, we have gone out to the original locations and persuaded people there that it is a very bad idea to behave in that way. I believe that we will have an analogous approach to countries from which a lot of victims of trafficking are now coming here.

I also acknowledge the great efforts for a long time of my hon. Friend Mr. Steen in acting against this evil trade.

I return to the question asked by Keith Vaz. Having listened to what the Prime Minister said yesterday, I think the Solicitor-General will understand that it was more than just a question of money. The Prime Minister said, effectively, that the Government would not be shutting down the Metropolitan police's human trafficking centre, but in November 2008 the Home Office stated that it would be closing it down. Why, again, is one arm of Government saying one thing and the other arm of Government saying another? What is the position, please?

The position is as the Prime Minister has made very clear, and there is nothing to add to that. The hon. Gentleman always wastes his opportunities at this question session. What is clear is that a decision was taken in November, and now we are in May and reconsideration is being given to that position, very clearly, very properly and very sensibly. Actually the hon. Gentleman should be praising us, not trying to cause difficulties.