Labour sex worker proposals branded ‘rapists’ charter’

SCOT-PEP and UK-wide National Ugly Mugs argue the proposed changes, which would see only buyers punished, would still leave sex workers vulnerable to criminal sanctions.

The charities pointed out that sex workers would still face criminal sanctions under brothel-keeping laws and that criminalisation increases the incidence of violence against sex workers because the practice would be driven underground.

Nadine Stott, co-chair of SCOT-PEP, said: “Everywhere that these laws have been tried, they have led to an increase in sex workers’ vulnerability to violence. In Scotland, the clients of street-based sex workers were criminalised in 2008 under the kerb-crawling ban.

“When this was brought in, SCOT-PEP, which at the time was funded by the Scottish government to do outreach and services, saw a 95 per cent rise in violence against street-based sex workers in just the first six months of the law. We are shocked and disappointed that Scottish Labour would look at this huge rise in violence and think that this was a successful policy worth extending.

“Their proposals are nothing more than a rapists’ charter.”

Alex Feis-Bryce, chief excutive of National Ugly Mugs, said: “In Northern Ireland, the much trumpeted ‘first arrest’ under new laws akin to those proposed by Scottish Labour saw one client arrested, along with three sex working women who were found at the house in the course of the raid on the client.

“Sex workers are still subject to raids, arrest and prosecution under the legal model that Scottish Labour has proposed.”