29.The Department of Justice launched a consultation on the proposed new offences on
5 April 2012, for a period of eight weeks.
30.The consultation concluded on 31 May. At that date 43 comments had been received, none of them negative.
31.A number of the responses highlighted the importance of sentencing as a deterrent and the legislative amendment, removing the provision for summary conviction, was included in the Act as a result. Stakeholders, including members of the Organised Crime Task Force’s Immigration and Human Trafficking (IHT) Subgroup, were also consulted and signalled their support for the amendment.
32.The consultation document and summary of responses can be found at: