Ash Regan lodges Holyrood Bill aiming to protect women from prostitution

A Bill seeking to protect vulnerable women and girls from prostitution has been launched at Holyrood by Ash Regan MSP.

In an attempt to overhaul Scotland’s prostitution laws, Regan’s Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill would criminalise the purchase of sex and provide support to help women exit prostitution.

Based on the ‘Nordic Model’, first adopted in Sweden, the approach aims to reduce the demand for prostitution, but it has been criticised for encouraging sex trafficking by decriminalising the ‘supply’ side.

Unbuyable

Prior to lodging her ‘Unbuyable Bill’, the Alba MSP for Edinburgh Eastern said: “Prostitution is not a job like any other, as some lobby groups claim; it is a system of commercial sexual exploitation that targets the vulnerable”.

She explained: “Scotland faces a choice. Do we continue with piecemeal initiatives to reduce harm from visible prostitution, with fragile support funding for those exploited, or will we confront the injustice of commercial sexual exploitation head-on?”

“No one is unbuyable—until the law clearly says so”, she added.

Dangerous

Pro-prostitution lobby groups have claimed the proposals are dangerous, arguing that it would drive ‘good clients’ away and push prostitution further underground.

But Fiona Broadfoot, who formerly worked as a prostitute in a brothel licensed as an entertainment venue by Edinburgh City Council, has called on MSPs to back the Bill.

She warned: “Prostitution is the most dangerous life to lead because every single man you meet could murder or rape you.”

Susan Dalgety, who served on the council’s licensing committee in the 1990s, recently apologised to “women trapped in prostitution” for knowingly approving licences to saunas and massage parlours where men paid for sex.

End abuse

The Christian Institute’s Director, Ciarán Kelly, commented: “We are grateful to Ash Regan for raising this vital issue. The CI supports calls to criminalise the purchase of sex and to help women leave prostitution for good.

“The law needs to be updated to better protect vulnerable women and girls who are routinely exploited across the UK.”

However, he added, “we do not support fully decriminalising the sale of sex: our ambition should be as complete an eradication of the harm and moral ill of prostitution as is within the Scottish Parliament’s power.

“We shouldn’t listen to groups that describe this abusive system as a form of work. Prostitution is not work; it’s abuse, and it must be put to an end.”