We are delighted to have the author of the original (and much copied) pages on sex work law help with this section. As it says at the bottom, this is not legal Advice. For that, you need to speak to a solicitor or some other qualified person. Over to Ian…
The UK legal system is often a version of the jokes about good news and bad news.
Prostitution – exchanging participation in sexual activities for money or other goods – has always been legal in the UK. It's actually arguably more acceptable to charge for your sexual skills than your cooking or brewing skills – you need a certificate or licence for the latter two!
However, many of the activities that prostitution often involve are illegal.
The legal situation in England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are similar overall but slightly different in the details. Unless otherwise stated, information is believed to be correct in England & Wales – contact whatever will replace the wonderful SCOT-PEP in Scotland or a project in Northern Ireland to find out more about the situation there.
The legal situation has also changed over time, and keeps changing. A government consultation on sex work laws, Paying the Price, was held in 2004 and the results and official response were published in January 2006. The Labour government then ignored most of its own stated plans and also put pressure on publishers to stop accepting ads for sexual services or face legislation.
Sometimes, the courts move ahead of Parliament. The 1967 Act that decriminalised some sexual acts between men specified they had to be 'in private', interpreted as between only two people, not involving anyone else or being seen by anyone else.
However in 2000, the European Court of Human Rights quashed the conviction of men who were enjoying consensual group sex – so though the law book took until 2004 to catch up, it was in fact legal.
This is not always a positive thing though – although the Government stated that only deliberate transmission of sexually transmitted infections should be a criminal offence, as of January 2011, thirteen people have been convicted for 'reckless' transmission of HIV including one who was also convicted of reckless transmission of Hepatitis C. Fortunately, in August 2006, the first not guilty verdict was delivered in a UK prosecution for HIV transmission and there have not been any convictions since 2007.
Sometimes, it is Parliament that has the harmful agenda. The Policing and Crime Act 2010 introduced an offence of paying for sex with someone a third party has coerced or deceived into providing the service. Controversially, it is a 'strict liability' offence: it is not necessary for the client to be aware of this. One clear intention of the law is to frighten clients – there is no way to be sure that paying is legal, even though it will be a difficult offence to prosecute.
The Basics – from April 2010
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 changed most sex work laws, and has since been changed further.
Working alone indoors, or for an agency or in a brothel
All remain legal. Provided the worker is at least 18, and has not been coerced or deceived into providing the service, buying sex from them is also legal.
'Pimping', running an agency or brothel
All remain illegal.
Controlling another adult's prostitution is only illegal if you gain from it (or know that someone else does). Looked at another way, gaining from someone else's prostitution is now legal: it's the control for gain that's illegal, carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
So sex workers' families are now free of the risk of being charged with "living on the earnings of prostitution" (the offence from 1956 to 2004, often wrongly known as "living on immoral earnings").
This is the main charge used against owners of escort agencies and brothels: "control" has no implications of coercion. (The next time you hear politicians complain about criminals being involved in running agencies and brothels, remember that they ensured that everyone doing so is a criminal!)
Brothels
In addition, it is specifically illegal to own or run a 'disorderly house' or brothel – anywhere more than one woman or man resorts to for sex outside marriage. As this doesn't necessarily have to be at the same time, or involve sexual intercourse or, indeed, any payment, a very wide range of places are therefore 'brothels'! (Remember that it's legal to be a sex worker at a brothel provided you don't assist in its management.)
A new law enables police to close suspected brothels, and changes to the Proceeds of Crime Act mean that they have a financial incentive to go after 'easy' targets like known brothels.
Age
It is illegal to pay for otherwise legal sex with someone who is 16 or 17. It is a defence to have a reasonable belief that they are at least 18 unless they are, in fact, under 13.
If it would be otherwise legal (typically, if they are at least 16) there is no special age limit for being a client of sexual services. (Most sex workers would not want to have a 16 or 17 year old client, however.)
Controlling someone under 18's prostitution is a more serious offence – no element of gain is necessary and the penalties are up to fourteen years in prison. (Curiously, it is legal to gain from their prostitution.)
Street work
The laws on working on the street are 'gender neutral'. Anyone, male or female, on the street (or on a balcony or in a window) can be found guilty of soliciting for the purpose of prostitution. The Policing and Crime Act 2009 did abolish the offensive term 'common prostitute' used for street workers, but also changed the definition of soliciting: it's now an offence to "persistently to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purposes of offering services as a prostitute", with 'persistently' defined as at least twice in any period of three months. It also gives courts the option to require people convicted to attend three meetings with a supervisor as an alternative penalty to a fine. The meetings are supposed to address the causes of the behaviour and find ways to stop it.
Since 1985, street work has been one of the few areas where clients of adult workers can get into trouble, when kerb-crawling (approaching other people for the purpose of prostitution from or near a vehicle they've just got out of) was made illegal. It was also made illegal in general to persistently solicit anyone on the street for the purposes of prostitution, but this was much less frequently prosecuted, not least because if they were in fact prostitutes, they didn't count for this law!
Following the Policing and Crime Act 2009, the specific offence of kerb-crawling has been abolished but it is now illegal for a person, whether in a vehicle or not, to solicit another in a street or public place for the purpose of obtaining a sexual service as a prostitute. There is no need to prove persistence. The maximum penalty is currently a £1,000 fine. If done from a vehicle, their vehicle can also be seized and/or they can be banned from driving. In addition, courts are encouraged to try cases together to maximise the chances they will be reported.
What gets prosecuted
In 1961, Frederick Shaw was controversially convicted of a conspiracy to corrupt public morals after publishing ads from prostitutes.
In 1971, a London-based 'alternative' newspaper, the International Times (IT), was convicted of the same offence. IT's crime was having run personal ads for gay men. The House of Lords ruled that while the acts may be legal, public encouragement of the acts is not. IT closed down as a result.
Today, there are several free magazines which openly carry ads for male escorts, displaying their erections and their price.
It would be very difficult to find a jury today willing to convict for gay personal or escort ads. A similar situation exists with many of the other laws. The police have better things to do, and they know it… at least in some areas of the country. One of the difficulties in advising people (remember that none of this is legal Advice) in relation to the brothel laws in particular is that different forces have different priorities.
The Crown Prosecution Service, responsible for deciding which cases to take to court, have published much of their advice to their staff. Of particular interest is the section on 'Prostitution and Exploitation of Prostitution', including these thoughts (the first of the list was new in 2010):
Public Interest Considerations
.. the following public interest aims and considerations should be borne in mind:
- To encourage prostitutes to find routes out of prostitution and to deter those who create the demand for it;
- To keep prostitutes off the street to prevent annoyance to members of the public;
- To prevent people leading or forcing others into prostitution;
- To penalise those who organise prostitutes and make a living from their earnings;
- Generally the more serious the incident the more likely that a prosecution will be required;
- The age of the prostitute and the position of those living off the earnings will clearly be relevant;
… so people working for themselves, off the streets, are clearly not a priority for the CPS.
Indeed, indoor work is generally targeted less than street work, and single brothels are targeted less than chains, but patterns of law enforcement vary at different times and in different places.
- Find out what laws the police are currently enforcing in your area and try to work within those boundaries – some forces say they have 'zero tolerance' of brothels etc, and will go after people who sub-let their 'working flat' on their day off, while other forces will call around to check that everything is ok at brothels in their area, and some will invite owners onto a committee to share best practice.
- Keep your activities low-key to avoid attracting attention – the neighbours can't complain about things they don't know about!
A few years ago, a brothel operated in a flat in the same block as the home of the author. It was several months before other residents caught on to what was happening, but once they did, it was quickly closed down.
Whatever your set-up, police involvement is more likely where there are under age or illegal migrant workers, or where there is drug dealing, money laundering, violence or 'exotic' services such as bondage or SM, on the premises.
I don't claim UK sex work law makes sense…