A parliamentary report published this week recommends that the government decriminalises selling sex but criminalise the act of paying for it.
What is the current law?
Under current legislation, activities such as soliciting for sex in a public place are outlawed. In 2013-14, there were more charges for loitering and soliciting than for the crimes of pimping, brothel-keeping, kerb-crawling and advertising prostitution combined, says The Guardian. In 2014, an all-party parliamentary group on prostitution cited "near pandemic" levels of violence and abuse that goes unreported because women are criminalised.
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What does the report recommend?
The Sex Buyer Law report, commissioned for the politicians by the End Demand campaign group, recommends that paying for sex should be illegal. It also wants to criminalise so-called "prostitution tourism", where people travel abroad to pay for sex. The parliamentary group is yet to formally respond to the report but its chairman, Gavin Shuker, the Labour MP for Luton South, has signalled his support for the recommendations.
Would it work?
Similar laws were introduced in Sweden in 1999, but their effect remains contentious. "Government statistics say Sweden, which counted 730 streetwalkers in 1999, saw the number fall to 300 by 2008," reports the Washington Times. "But the actual figure is far higher when those who work out of bars and solicit via the internet are included."
Others object on principle. "Making the purchase of sex a crime strips women of agency and autonomy," says Time. "It should be decriminalised altogether." But the Huffington Post says decriminalisation has led to "apocalyptic levels of abuse" in New Zealand, the US state of Nevada, the Netherlands and Germany.
What else is being done in the UK?
Last month, Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff put forward plans to propose "managed red-light districts" in the capital, where prostitution could take place between appointed hours, with the intention of making "those selling sex feel safer". A similar scheme has been introduced in Leeds following the murder of a prostitute, Daria Piouko, just before Christmas.
