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calls for street prostitution to be legal in Scotland
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Expert calls for street prostitution to be legal in Scotland - Andrew Denholm, Political Correspondent
Selling sex on Scotland's streets should be decriminalised, according to an expert group on prostitution.
Its report, published yesterday, called for current legislation banning on-street soliciting to be scrapped.
In its place, new laws would be drawn up to target offensive behaviour arising from the sale or purchase of sexual services. The new law would apply equally to prostitutes and the men who use them.
However, despite advance predictions, the working group report did not recommend the creation of prostitution "tolerance zones".
If soliciting for prostitution is no longer to be a criminal offence, there would no longer be a need for formal zones where the law did not apply, said the group, chaired by Sandra Hood, a former Strathclyde assistant chief constable.
Instead, the report suggests that local authorities should consider the need for "managed zones" in order to confine public nuisance to a specific area and make it easier for them to help women out of prostitution.
The working group was set up last year by the Executive after MSPs rejected a bid by the independent MSP Margo MacDonald to legislate for formal "tolerance zones".
Ms MacDonald, a member of the working group, yesterday welcomed the report. "What the report does is to take the best elements of what was learned from having managed zones in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and move to the next stage," she said.
Hugh Henry, the deputy justice minister, said the Executive now intends to consult on the report. "I believe they have delivered a new approach to dealing with this issue and the Executive is issuing that report to all interested parties for consultation," he said.
"We will be considering the group's proposals and the responses to them in detail, before announcing how we plan to address the challenges posed by increasing street prostitution in Scotland."
The report concentrates solely on street prostitution, and the group's future work will study other aspects of the problem - such as trafficking, indoor prostitution, and male prostitution.
The expert group studied street prostitution in Aberdeen, Dundee, > Edinburgh and Glasgow, and visited several big English cities.
About 1,400 women are involved in street prostitution in Scotland, of whom about 180 are likely to be on the streets of the four biggest cities each night, said Ms Hood.
At present, prostitution is not an offence, but the 1982 Civic Government (Scotland) Act criminalises soliciting in a public place for the purpose of prostitution.
Ms Hood said: "The group's view is that the current law is unsuitable - both in terms of fairness and equity, and in terms of its capacity to contribute helpfully to the operational objectives of tackling prostitution.
"Offensive conduct arising out of street prostitution should be criminalised, rather than street prostitution itself."
The group recommends changing the law and suggests a number of ways to achieve it.
The existing law could be repealed and replaced with breach of the peace to deal with offensive behaviour. A new offence of buying or selling sex in such a way as to cause public alarm or offence could also be drawn up.
A third option would be to retain the concept of soliciting, but stipulate that it - and buying sex - is only an offence if fear or offence can be demonstrated.
Commenting on the proposals in the Scottish Parliament Frank McAveety, a Glasgow Labour MSP, called for specific laws to target kerb crawlers.
However, Ms Hood argued the proposed new offence would empower police to tackle kerb-crawling drivers whose conduct created a nuisance. "Central to our approach is the proposal that the law on soliciting be reviewed to ensure it does not criminalise on a moral basis and that it does not, as at present, stigmatise the person soliciting, but not the person buying sexual services," she said.
"Instead we want to replace the criminalisation of soliciting with an offence that targets offensive behaviour or conduct towards the public arising from someone either buying or selling sexual services."
This, the group argues, removes the need for formal "tolerance zones" - since it would not be necessary to create an area of immunity from prosecution for soliciting if soliciting was no longer illegal.
Alongside the changes, the group is also calling for the Executive to set out a general approach to the problem, within which local councils could find their own best ways of dealing with the issue.
Councils and other agencies would be required to draw up local plans for tackling the problem and make it easier for women to be helped out of prostitution.
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