In relation to clause 16: a. The Government should give consideration to amending the scope of the offences to ensure that they only apply to persons involved in the smuggling of persons for direct or indirect financial or material gain. (See Amendment 9, Annex) b. Clause 16(2) should be removed and replaced with a requirement that the person intended the information to be useful in organising or preparing for a relevant journey, or was reckless as to whether the information would be useful to a person organising or preparing for a relevant journey. (See Amendment 10, Annex). c. The defence of “reasonable excuse” ought to explicitly provide that it must be interpreted compatibly with the Article 31 of the Refugee Convention, Article 5 of the Smuggling Protocol, and section 26 of the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking. (See Amendment 11, Annex). d. The offence in clause 16 should be added to the existing defence in section 31 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. This would, in certain circumstances, provide a defence to refugees who come to the UK directly from a country where their life or freedom was threatened. (See Amendment 7, Annex) (Recommendation, Paragraph 53)