Stop treating prostitutes as criminals, urge MPs

PROSTITUTES should no longer be criminalised for offering sex and their past convictions should be erased to make it easier for them to get jobs, say MPs.

They say that fear of being prosecuted for soliciting means sex workers take greater risks with clients, exposing them to more danger of exploitation, abuse and violence.

It also means they are less likely to seek help from the police, access health care or try to quit prostitution, says the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Rules on running brothels should also be rewritten so prostitutes can share premises rather than placing themselves in jeopardy by working alone, the cross-party panel has con-present cluded. And it says deleting sex workers’ criminal records would knock down an ‘insurmountable barrier’ for women who want to stop walking the streets and find regular work.

The measures were outlined by the committee in an interim report to be published today following its first inquiry into the red-light trade.

But the study will be received warily in communities blighted by street prostitution, where related problems include drug-dealing, robbery and violence, and discarded condoms and syringes in gardens and streets.

There is also a fear that relaxing the law could be the first step towards legalising the trade.

Paying for sex is not against the law in mainland UK – it was made illegal in Northern Ireland last year – but many activities linked to it, such as brothel-keeping and soliciting in a public place, are banned.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, said there was ‘universal agreement’ that parts of the law were ‘unsatisfactory’. He said: ‘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 report added: ‘We are very concerned that, despite there being no clear evidence that it reduces demand for prostitution, the current practice of treating soliciting as an offence is having an adverse impact, in terms of preventing sex workers from seeking help to exit prostitution, exposing them to abuse and violence, and damaging other areas of their lives, such as access to health and welfare benefits.’

MPs said criminal records made it more difficult for prostitutes to quit the trade, described as ‘the most dangerous occupation in the world’. Since 1990, 152 sex workers have been murdered in Britain.

Evidence to the committee said convictions for prostitutes – which usually result in fines – ‘trapped and entrenched them in a cycle of exploitation, offending and limited life chances’.

The report said: ‘Having a criminal record for prostitution-related offences also often creates an insurmountable barrier for sex workers wishing to exit prostitution and to move into regular work.’

The committee stressed that the power to prosecute pimps should be maintained, along with ‘zero tolerance’ to criminal exploitation.

MPs said they were ‘not convinced’ that the ‘sex buyer law’ introduced in Northern Ireland would work. They had heard evidence that prostitutes were forced to take greater risks to ensure their clients were not arrested, such as working in more isolated locations.

Research suggests there are 72,800 prostitutes in the UK and that 10 per cent of British men have paid for sex on at least one occasion.

‘Exposing them to violence’