What Sex Workers Say
“I am very concerned about how bringing in the Nordic Model would drive the industry even further underground, making it harder for us to screen our clients, therefore making my job even more precarious than it already is. The stigma that this will create will also increase discrimination against workers that are already marginalised. Thereby compounding the problems that we face on a daily basis.”
Sex worker, NUM’s evidence submission to Prostitution Bill Consultation September 2024
“As a sex worker who specialises in offering services to clients (male and female) with disabilities, the idea of criminalisation of these clients is abhorrent. Most clients that I see can only book me with assistance from social workers and care staff and so would be unable to access any services at all. For some, paying for sex is the only opportunity they have had to have an intimate or sexual experience. Nobody ever seems to think about the varied and sometimes complicated reasons that some people have for choosing to pay for sex.”
Sex worker, NUM’s evidence submission to Prostitution Bill Consultation September 2024
“I think the Nordic Model makes sex work more dangerous for us. Like criminalisation of other forms, this makes it more difficult to simply try to make ends meet, when there is hardly any other work available – particularly for those of us who are trans and/or disabled. This policy would be detrimental to the wellbeing of anybody in the industry, and could prompt clients to become more aggressive with us due to the high-stakes interactions.”
Sex worker, NUM’s evidence submission to Prostitution Bill Consultation September 2024
“I am currently a full-service independent sex worker. I chose to use the term “sex work” as to me, it is work and a job that allows me freedom, independence and a lifestyle away from the benefits system. I’m not a survival sex worker; not an addict or traumatised shell that many like to portray. I am currently a mature student completing a degree and choosing to do sex work as it offers me the flexibility to pick and choose when, where and how I work. I recognise that I am in a privileged position such that I can and do turn down more potential clients in a week than I see thanks to the sex worker-created safety communications.
The Nordic Model is wholly unacceptable. Whilst not directly criminalising our work, it would criminalise our clients. While this wouldn’t bother many of the worst clients we are contacted by, it would cause issues for some, and these would invariably be the nicer, better clients who do care about the law. Our choices to see clients who are less concerned about legalisation adds danger for us.”
Sex worker, NUM’s evidence submission to Prostitution Bill Consultation September 2024
“Punters could blame sex workers for their arrest, with several outcomes such as violence that wouldn’t have been done before. It could bring a lot of police presence to sex worker locations, therefore arousing public suspicion and outing her or him as a sex worker. It could also bring reduced income, pushing sex workers into other more dangerous alternatives, as well as making sex workers change location to a less safe place, to avoid police or to make punters feel safer, which ends up putting sex workers in danger.
I fear that it may lead to the public becoming vigilantes and standing at sex worker locations outing punters, which could reveal sex workers’ identities. Punters, after being charged, may then dox the sex worker. If the sex worker is required to testify at court, it takes time away from income generation and sex workers will need extra support from the court system as witness – there isn’t enough resources for this at the moment, never mind after the Bill.”
Sex worker, NUM’s evidence submission to Prostitution Bill Consultation September 2024