UK: Committee recommends decriminalisation of sex workers

A committee of MPs has recommended the decriminalisation of soliciting and brothel-keeping in England and Wales.

The Home Affairs Committee has published an interim report which says legislation should be “immediately” changed so soliciting is no longer an offence and sex workers are allowed to share premises.

However, it said legislation should remain in place to allow prosecution of those who use brothels to control or exploit sex workers.

The report also recommends the Home Office legislates to delete previous convictions and cautions for prostitution from the record of sex workers, as these records make it much more difficult for people to move out of prostitution into other forms of work if they wish to.

It is estimated that there are around 72,800 sex workers in the UK, with about 32,000 working in London.

In 2014-15, there were 456 prosecutions of sex workers in England and Wales for loitering and soliciting.

The committee will continue examining the law on buying sex to consider whether legislation similar to Northern Ireland’s sex purchase ban should be introduced in England and Wales.

Committee chair Keith Vaz said: “This is the first time that Parliament has considered the issue of prostitution in the round for decades. It is a polarising subject with strong views on all sides.

“This interim report will be followed by final recommendations, when we consider other options, including the different approaches adopted by other countries.

“As a first step, there has been universal agreement that elements of the present law are unsatisfactory. Treating soliciting as a criminal offence is having an adverse effect, and it is wrong that sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be penalised and stigmatised in this way. The criminalisation of sex workers should therefore end.

“The current law on brothel keeping also means sex-workers can be too afraid of prosecution to work together at the same premises, which can often compromise their safety. There must however be zero tolerance of the organised criminal exploitation of sex workers, and changes to legislation should not lessen the Home Office’s ability to prosecute those engaged in exploitation.

“The Committee will evaluate a number of the alternative models as this inquiry continues, including the sex-buyers law as operated in Sweden, the full decriminalised model used in Denmark, and the legalised model used in Germany and the Netherlands.”