Tracy Gilbert MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2026 · Historical Forced Adoption · Hansard source

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  As an adopted person born in 1972, I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement today. I have no idea if my birth mother felt forced to have me adopted, but I do know that prior to the birth, she was in a Church of Scotland mother and baby home. My adoptive parents have since died, but I am sure that they would not have wanted to adopt any child who had been forcibly removed from their mother. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that mothers should be supported by the state to look after their children and not forced to give them up?

• 2 Jul 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  More than 70 organisations and novelist Irvine Welsh are backing the community-led bid for Leith to become the first ever UK town of culture. Can my right hon. Friend put in a word for Leith with Ministers at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and will he make arrangements for a written statement to update us on the timetable of the UK town of culture 2028 competition?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Heat Networks · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his answer. May I also place on the record my thanks to him for coming to meet my constituents from Saltire Street and Saltire Square, and for listening to what they said about the long-running issues that they have been facing with their district heating networks? I welcome the regulation that this Government have brought forward. Can my hon. Friend confirm that data on pricing will now need to be reported quarterly to Ofgem, and that this will help increase transparency for my constituents and others?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Heat Networks · Hansard source

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  14. What steps his Department is taking to regulate heat networks.

• 1 Jun 2026 · Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice · Hansard source

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  I welcome the clarity that the code brings for service providers, and I note, too, that Women’s Aid is just one of the organisations that has welcomed it. Can my hon. Friend confirm that the Supreme Court judgment and the code have not revoked any rights for anyone, but have confirmed single-sex rights that protect women and girls?

• 21 May 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Although I welcome my hon. Friend’s statement, given all we have heard today, my constituents and I are concerned about the reported closure of the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project. I have seen at first hand how important its work is, and how important the projects are that it undertakes, in order to monitor human rights violations in the region. Can my hon. Friend assure the House that the Foreign Office is still able to track the number of potential breaches of international law in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, and compare that to the number this time last year?

• 21 May 2026 · Middle East: Economic Response · Hansard source

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  I welcome the measures that my right hon. Friend has announced today, which will help ease the cost of living pressures on families in my constituency, and on its very many businesses and attractions—and in time for the Scottish school summer holidays. She is always welcome for award-winning fish and chips in my constituency. Earlier this year, the Government set out welcome plans to break the link between the wholesale price of gas and the cost of electricity. Can my right hon. Friend provide an update on those plans and tell us how that will help reduce bills over the long term?

• 21 Apr 2026 · Sex Trafficking: Scotland · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to Ash Regan for her work and for bringing forward the unbuyable Bill. Women are not to be bought and paid for, and buying sex is not consent. The Scottish Government’s reasons for voting down the Bill were poor, and in their debate in the Scottish Parliament in February, the Minister said they had “instructed officials to start work immediately on the establishment of a commission so that options are available for the responsible minister in the next Government.” —[ Scottish Parliament Official Report , 3 February 2026; c. 55.] I urge that that work be undertaken as soon as the election has taken place.

• 21 Apr 2026 · Sex Trafficking: Scotland · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of sex trafficking in Scotland. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I am proud to support a Labour Government who are committed to halving violence against women and girls in a decade. However, I am always going to push for more action to be taken to end the commercial sexual exploitation that takes place every day on our streets and online. I have raised the need for the Government and police to shut down websites that are advertising prostitution before. Why? Because there has long existed extensive evidence that online mega brothels are facilitating industrial-scale sex trafficking and sexual exploitation across the UK. Websites advertising prostitution, more accurately referred to as pimping websites, are commercial platforms dedicated solely or partly to advertising individuals for prostitution. In 2017, an inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group on commercial sexual exploitation exposed the crucial role they play in the business model of sex trafficking to meet men’s demands for prostitution.

• 21 Apr 2026 · Sex Trafficking: Scotland · Hansard source

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  I agree. While the reports have been very interesting, I fail to understand why that collaboration was ever allowed to take place. It would seem from all the evidence that collaborating with those pimping websites has not saved one woman from domestic abuse or the violence they have faced. So I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend’s point. As the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith—a constituency in which AdultWork and Vivastreet aid prostitution—I have a duty to speak out. Today alone, there are 123 women being advertised for prostitution in Edinburgh on Vivastreet, and 132 women on AdultWork. Across Scotland, the total numbers are 776 and 816—that is in a single day. I have reported this crime today to the chief constable of Police Scotland. As I have outlined here and detailed in writing, there is substantial evidence in the public domain that individuals operating pimping websites are perpetrating human trafficking in Scotland on an unprecedented scale, and that that has been the case since the introduction of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. I am also aware that the charitable organisation UK Feminista has contacted Police Scotland on this matter. I believe that the seriousness and scale of these activities warrants an immediate criminal investigation. Finally, my ask to Ministers in Westminster is this: shut down pimping websites now. They are directly perpetrating human trafficking in Scotland and across the UK and are facilitating industrial-scale sex trafficking. If the law as it stands allows them to operate in England and Wales, we should change it. These websites are crime scenes. Shut them down now, hold their operators accountable and, most importantly, let their victims finally access justice.

• 21 Apr 2026 · Sex Trafficking: Scotland · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree. A recent report found that commercial sexual exploitation is so linked with organised crime that it could not be further underground. All of that is linked to violence against women and girls, and our Government are working hard to challenge and solve that over the coming years. We should be in no doubt as to the gravity of the implications: pimping websites are the largest human trafficking operation in modern UK history. Police Scotland should launch an immediate criminal investigation into the individuals running pimping websites in Scotland for human trafficking—an offence that carries a maximum life sentence. Under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act, an exploiter must fulfil three key criteria for their activities to constitute human trafficking. First, they have to “take a relevant action”. Secondly, they have to take that action “with a view to another person being exploited.” Thirdly, they must intend “to exploit the other person” or “know or ought to know the person is likely to be exploited.” The individuals operating and profiting from pimping websites tick every box. I will consider each criterion in turn. First, taking a “relevant action.” The relevant actions in the Act include “the transportation or transfer of another person” or “the arrangement or facilitation” of it. Pimping websites openly and explicitly facilitate the transportation or transfer of individuals for prostitution. The operators of these platforms publish prostitution adverts in a standardised format, which includes specifying whether the individual being advertised will do outcalls. Vivastreet helpfully clarifies on its website in a blog targeted at individuals being prostituted that “An outcall is where you go to the client’s location”. In a separate blog aimed at sex buyers, it says: “If it’s an outcall, they will also have to factor in travel and finding the meeting space.” Vivastreet also advise those advertising on its website: “Don’t forget to set your incall and outcall - as well as overnight fees.” AdultWork, meanwhile, provides a function on its website explicitly facilitating what it calls “escort tours”. Sex buyers were advised to use that page to locate members offering escort services “on tour”: “Specify your preferences and location below to see who will be visiting your area.” Prostitution adverts published by Vivastreet and AdultWork specify whether the individual advertiser will travel to the sex buyer. Crucially, website visitors are also able to filter adverts according to whether those individuals will provide outcalls—that is, travel for prostitution—using a sorting function designed and provided by the website. That is crystal-clear facilitation of “transportation or transfer of another person” for prostitution. Facilitating the transportation of individuals for prostitution is built into the architecture of AdultWork and Vivastreet. The second element of the human trafficking offence in Scotland is that the relevant action is taken “with a view to another person being exploited”. The crucial issue is of course what constitutes exploitation. Under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act, exploitation includes exercising “control, direction or influence over prostitution by the person in a way which shows that the other person is aiding, abetting or compelling the prostitution.” Pimping websites openly and explicitly aid prostitution. In 2023, a representative of Vivastreet told the Home Affairs Committee that most of its profits came from sex-trade adverts. The standardised prostitute adverts that pimping websites publish contain a long list of sex acts, with the advertiser having to indicate which acts the person advertising will perform. The adverts also feature sexualised or sexually explicit images of the person advertised, prices and a contact phone number. AdultWork and Vivastreet have not even attempted to hide the fact that they aid prostitution, presumably because—at least until now—they have assumed that they do not need to. As far back as 2017, a judge sentencing a sex-trafficking gang that advertised victims on Vivastreet observed: “No one, including those who make a profit from Vivastreet, could have been left in any doubt prostitution services were being offered.” The adverts on pimping websites are not incidental to the prostitution that takes place. After sex buyers view the ads, they call the phone numbers contained in them and make arrangements for the women to travel. The adverts are indispensable to the resulting prostitution, and they are how buyers and advertisers connect and communicate. I turn finally to the third criterion: for an activity to constitute human trafficking in Scotland, the pimping website must intend “to exploit the other person”. That is, they must intend to aid prostitution or know, or ought to know, that the person is likely to be exploited “during or after the relevant action”. As is abundantly clear from the activities that I have described, Vivastreet and AdultWork are not unwitting or accidental hosts of hundreds of thousands of prostitute adverts every day. Their knowledge and intent to aid prostitution are immediately obvious to anyone who visits their sites. Every prostitution advert is displayed in an identical format, because the website operators designed it that way, complete with a predetermined list of sex acts. The operators have intentionally designed the website to enable visitors to filter prostitution adverts according to whether the advertised individuals will do outcalls—that is, travel for the purpose of prostitution. AdultWork, for example, provides a function that enables sex buyers to contact advertisers directly through the website’s internal messaging function. The website states: “AdultWork.com has booking forms for escort meetings that use the prices you’ve set”. Again, that is crystal-clear intent to aid prostitution. Pimping websites operating in Scotland constitute human trafficking operations in and of themselves. That is even before we have considered the industrial-scale trafficking by third parties advertising their victims on those platforms. It is a national scandal that the individuals operating AdultWork and Vivastreet have been allowed to operate for years with total impunity, and yet they have also been presented by Government and the National Crime Agency as partners in tackling sex trafficking.

• 21 Apr 2026 · Sex Trafficking: Scotland · Hansard source

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  I wholly agree. In my Edinburgh North and Leith constituency, our local councils want to tackle some of these issues, which is very hard to do without funds. They also want to support and provide services for women who are trying to exit prostitution. I wholeheartedly agree with the points that the hon. Gentleman makes. Since the 2017 inquiry, past and present members of the APPG, along with organisations such as UK Feminista, have consistently and repeatedly called for these platforms to be closed down. Yet, time and again over the years, the response from the Government, the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs’ Council has been the same: pimping websites, which they have referred to as “adult service websites”, are legal and we should continue to allow them to operate. The Government and police have even engaged in public partnerships with these massive prostitution businesses. Freedom of information requests conducted as part of research by Kat Banyard at the University of Durham revealed that Vivastreet has been delivering training sessions to police officers. The same pimping website enjoyed what they billed as “quarterly catch-ups” with Home Office officials. The FOIs show that the Home Office gave pimping website regulators regular access to Government officials and privileged opportunities to input into policy. To give an idea of the closeness of the relationship, after Vivastreet gave evidence to the Home Affairs Committee in 2023 as part of the Committee’s inquiry into human trafficking, a Home Office official reached out to it by email to say, “the Committee did not give you an easy time – which hopefully didn’t come as too much of a surprise to you, but nonetheless it’s never a nice feeling – so I do hope that you were ok afterwards.” I strongly support the Home Affairs Committee findings that collaboration between the Home Office, the National Crime Agency and pimping websites was “inexplicable, particularly given the total absence of evidence that it has led to a reduction in the scale of trafficking facilitated by these websites”. Since the inquiry, I am pleased that that collaboration with Government seems to have stopped. I am firmly of the view that Government and the police should not be collaborating with pimping websites. We should be banning those websites and using the full force of the law against them—that is the only way to keep women and girls safe. Scotland’s law on human trafficking is different from the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. I will explain how pimping websites including Vivastreet and AdultWork constitute human trafficking operations under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (Scotland) 2015.

• 15 Apr 2026 · Energy Prices · Hansard source

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  My constituents welcomed the fall in energy prices at the beginning of this month. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to reduce energy prices in Scotland is not to pursue more constitutional divides but to secure our energy independence by progressing the Government’s clean power mission as quickly as possible?

• 14 Apr 2026 · “For Women Scotland” Court Ruling: First Anniversary · Hansard source

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  Alice Sullivan has spoken a lot about identifying sex and gender. Does the hon. Member agree that sex and gender are not the same thing, and that if we are registering for a parkrun, another sporting event or anything else, we all know what is on our birth certificate?

• 14 Apr 2026 · “For Women Scotland” Court Ruling: First Anniversary · Hansard source

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  As a lesbian woman, I have often been misgendered. As a young person—a tomboy—that sort of thing did not bother me; I wore it as a badge of honour. I am very worried that we are talking about fitting women into stereotypes. Surely, in this day and age, we are trying to move away from gender stereotypes as women, lesbians and gay people. Does the hon. Member agree that a trans woman can be a trans woman and a trans man can be a trans man—they are not a woman and they are not a man; they are a trans woman or a trans man—and services should be provided on that basis?

• 14 Apr 2026 · “For Women Scotland” Court Ruling: First Anniversary · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Member recognise that women are a vulnerable group and that we make up half the population, yet we are still subject to more violence than any other group of people in society?

• 14 Apr 2026 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for reassuring us that these amendments have a timescale of 12 months. What are the Government doing behind the scenes to progress this work as quickly as possible? Can she outline the work that she has undertaken to ensure that the regulations are introduced within those 12 months?

• 12 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am proud to support the Government’s ambition to cut violence against women and girls, and a cross-Government approach is essential to delivering that. I am increasingly concerned that the Department for Work and Pensions is not recognising OnlyFans content creation as commercial sexual exploitation, potentially exposing more women to harm. Will the Leader of the House raise that with the relevant Ministers, so that they can bring forward regulations to amend section 2A of the Employment and Training Act 1973 to address this problem?

• 12 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T3. I refer Members to my declaration of interest as a former employee of USDAW. The new rights of trade union access in the Employment Rights Act 2025 could be game changing, but there is a proposal to cap fines for breaking new rules at £75,000, which is loose change for union-busting employees like Amazon. Will my hon. Friend consider setting fines at a percentage of global turnover, as is the case for GDPR breaches and ticket touting websites?

• 10 Mar 2026 · Northern Ireland Hospitality Sector: VAT · Hansard source

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  A number of hospitality businesses in my constituency have raised with me that the UK rate of VAT is much higher than it is in France and Germany. Will my hon. Friend ask the Office for Budget Responsibility to model the impact of VAT cuts, as studies have previously suggested that cuts—

• 9 Mar 2026 · Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for opening this important debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee, and I thank Lyla’s family for their courage. Some 95 of my Edinburgh North and Leith constituents signed this important petition, and I thank them for sharing their experiences. In particular, I want to share the story of one mum who told me about the devastating consequences that diabetes had for her family. She told me about her son Nick, who sadly died of this terrible disease aged 28. Nick’s initial diagnosis at 16 was dismissed by the doctor he went to see. It was only the family’s knowledge of what was happening that ensured Nick got to see the specialist he needed. Nick’s mum told me that, in his 12 years as a diabetic, he carried his type 1 diagnosis as lightly as possible, despite having to give himself more than 25,000 injections in that time. Families such as Nick’s hope that by supporting the petition, our Government will take these vital steps towards making sure that life is made safer for children and adults living with type 1 diabetes. I share that view, and hope that the Government pay close attention to the experience of families across the country. I also urge the Scottish Medicines Consortium to consider similar changes for Scotland, and hope that the Scottish Government ensure that improvements are made for type 1 diagnosis and care.

• 5 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Events of the past week serve as a reminder of the contribution that our armed forces personnel play every day. Many of our veterans will suffer from trauma, anxiety and a range of mental health issues during their career and retirement. The charity Combat Stress is running a “March in March” fundraiser to support the vital work it does for our veterans. Will the Leader of the House join me in wishing good luck to my nephew, Stanley Whatling, and the others from Gilberd combined cadet force team who are taking part in this fundraising event, and will he schedule an oral statement on the support being provided to veterans?

• 12 Feb 2026 · Driving Test Waiting Times · Hansard source

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  4. What steps she is taking to help reduce waiting times for driving tests.

• 12 Feb 2026 · Driving Test Waiting Times · Hansard source

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  A number of my constituents have been in touch to share their experience of being unable to book test appointments. These delays have an impact on training, education and employment opportunities. Will my hon. Friend outline what specific steps her Department is taking to reduce the backlog for test appointments at test centres in Scotland?

• 12 Feb 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Over the past week, I have been contacted by many constituents in Western Harbour in my constituency who have been left in limbo by the lack of cladding redemption programmes in Scotland. Across England, redemption programmes have completed on more than 1,935 buildings. In Scotland, only two have started. Does the Leader of the House agree that my constituents are being failed by Scottish National party inaction? Will he make arrangements for a written statement on the funding and joint Government work that has been undertaken in this area?