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Nursery Education

12. Richard Ottaway (Croydon, South) (Con): If he will make a statement on the funding of nursery education. [176001]

The Minister for Children (Margaret Hodge): In 1997 access to free nursery education was effectively a postcode lottery. Since then we have invested more than £11 billion as part of an unprecedented expansion of early years provision. From 1 April 2004, six months ahead of the original target, we amended the regulatory framework to require all local authorities to ensure that there is sufficient provision to deliver a free part-time nursery education place for all three and four-year-olds whose parents want one.

Richard Ottaway : May I suggest that the Minister visit Croydon, where that is not the case? Is she aware of the shambles in the funding of nursery education in Croydon, where the Labour-controlled council has embarked upon a discriminatory and illegal policy to deal with it? Is she aware that owing to a lack of funding, the council is not fulfilling the pledge that she set out? The council is choosing schools that are in Labour-controlled wards to receive nursery education funding, and ignoring the rest of the borough. Does she agree that that is abuse of power and contrary to the advice of officers, and will she use her statutory powers to intervene in what is nothing more than political corruption?

Margaret Hodge: As the hon. Gentleman knows, I am aware of the situation in Croydon because he has written to me about it two or three times and I have responded. As he also knows from the correspondence in which he and I have been engaged, we are working closely with that authority to find a solution. It may be worth pointing out to the House that there are two authorities out of the 150 local education authorities that are having some difficulty in implementing their statutory requirements. One is Croydon; the other is Tory-controlled Richmond.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL

The Solicitor-General was asked—

Small Businesses

18. Mr. Henry Bellingham (North-West Norfolk) (Con): What plans she has to assist small businesses to combat fraudulent schemes targeted at small and medium-sized businesses. [176007]

The Solicitor-General (Ms Harriet Harman): There is a wide range of initiatives under way across
 
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Government to help small business combat fraud. Those include helping small businesses protect themselves against fraud and ensuring better investigation and prosecution of fraud.

Mr. Bellingham : I am grateful to the Solicitor-General for those remarks and for the effort she is putting into the dealing with the problem, but is she aware that many of the scams are becoming ever more brazen and complicated? One was reported to me the other day that was targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises and involved an organisation in Holland that purported to be an official lottery. It informed the recipient that they had won a large amount of money, asked for their bank details and asked them to send a handling fee. Some small firms have already been conned by that, believe it or not. Can the Solicitor-General tell the House what further steps she will take to try and sort out the problem?

The Solicitor General: The hon. Gentleman raises an important point and brings to the attention of the House the fact that huge amounts of money are involved in frauds perpetrated against small businesses. Often that has an international dimension and is highly organised and complex. He may be aware that the Federation of Small Businesses now has a column in its newsletter called "Scamwatch". Perhaps that ought to include the fraud that the hon. Gentleman described.

It is important that we work across Government Departments and across agencies. It is an issue for the Department of Trade and Industry, the Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading, as well as for the police and prosecutors and small businesses themselves.

Mr. Peter Pike (Burnley) (Lab): Does my right hon. and learned Friend accept that many small businesses have difficulty with the current legislation on money laundering? Does she agree that we should provide more guidance, so that people do not fall into traps that they are not expecting?

The Solicitor General: We are always happy to give guidance to small business, and we keep in close contact with the chambers of commerce as well as the Federation of Small Businesses. For the most part, they ask for more police resources to investigate fraud and closer working with prosecutors, but if there is a particular issue with small businesses having difficulty with the important new money-laundering regulations, we will do everything we can to help. Those regulations and the changes in the law are very important to tackle a growing problem.

Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): There certainly is a growing problem, not only with "phishing" for bank details, but with the west African scam, which has been mentioned, and with what I consider to be the worst of all: firms purporting to be Government Departments or agencies asking for registration fees from companies for functions that are, in fact, free of charge.

Many of those cases are reported to local trading standards departments in the first instance, and it is difficult to assess the scale of the problem across the whole country. Can the Solicitor-General assure me that such
 
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cases are collated and that what is perhaps minor fraud in individual cases is considered as major fraud when it is replicated across the country and internationally?

The Solicitor General: Just as Ministers must work with colleagues in other Departments, so the Crown Prosecution Service must work closely with the police—on fraud, it works particularly closely with City of London police. It is also important for local police forces and local trading standards departments to work together. The line between what is a criminal offence and what is taking advantage is often blurred, and we must keep an eye on that point. I shall take up the hon. Gentleman's suggestion and examine liaison between trading standards departments and local police on that issue.

Human Traffickers

19. Mr. David Kidney (Stafford) (Lab): What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to secure the conviction of human traffickers. [176008]

The Solicitor General: The CPS works closely with the police, immigration authorities and victims' organisations to ensure that human traffickers are caught, convicted and receive the appropriate sentence.

Mr. Kidney : I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for that answer. Does she agree that public ill will towards those who enter our country illegally should be properly directed towards organised criminal gangs that smuggle people into the country illegally? Does she think that prosecutors could contribute to focusing public disapproval—nay, loathing—on the right people by securing convictions and the severest sentences for ruthless people smugglers?

The Solicitor General: I agree with the points raised by my hon. Friend. When the Court of Appeal heard the case of a man called Plakici, who had received an unduly lenient sentence, it said that people trafficking is modern-day slavery. People are tricked, taken across the world and forced into terrible circumstances, which often include prostitution, kidnap, rape and many kinds of assault. The problem is growing, and we must address it internationally. We cannot sort it out alone, and we must work bilaterally with the countries of origin, some of which are in Africa, eastern Europe and south-east Asia, and with our European partners, because victims are often brought into another European country before they are brought into the United Kingdom.

Mr. Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield) (Con): The Solicitor-General knows that in many cases human trafficking is for the purpose of prostitution, which is a point that we sought specifically to address in sections 57, 58 and 59 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Will she tell the House about progress on prosecutions under that legislation? Perhaps she will also amplify her remarks on international co-operation: are we succeeding in extraditing to this country for trial those who facilitate trafficking, because in many cases the traffickers are not based here?

The Solicitor General: On international co-operation, the offences often occur in a number of different
 
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countries, and victims and evidence are often located in several different countries. That often raises the question of the most appropriate jurisdiction under which to try the crime, and extradition is not a major issue. The hon. Gentleman is right that the 2003 Act adds more offences to tackle that growing menace. The 2003 Act came into effect on 1 May, and I do not know whether any prosecutions have occurred under it yet, but an interministerial group will monitor the situation. The hon. Gentleman, like me, was in the Committee that considered the 2003 Act, and none of us wants good legislation that is not enforced.

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