The Current Situation In Scotland

The Current Legal Model

In Scotland and the rest of the UK, partial criminalisation makes sex work dangerous. The act of selling sex itself is not illegal, however, “associated activities” such as soliciting and brothel keeping are criminalised. This means that workers cannot work in pairs or groups for safety, and that those who do work in managed brothels have no access to workers’ rights. For street-based and outdoor workers, soliciting in a public place and kerb-crawling (for clients) are both offences. This means there is less time for workers to engage in screening, negotiate terms and take safety measures such as informing others of their whereabouts.

Criminalisation not only makes it harder to access workers’ rights and to work safely, it also acts as a barrier to accessing justice and other forms of support. Workers are often unwilling or unable to report when they have experienced violence at the hands of a client for fear that they themselves will be criminalised.

The Push for the Nordic Model

In June 2024, Alba MSP Ash Regan formally proposed a new law to bring in the Nordic Model, but has failed to seek public and stakeholder views in line with Scottish Parliament guidance.

While politicians once again try to control sex workers’ bodily autonomy by implementing abolitionist laws to “end demand”, Scots have rejected the Scottish Government’s plans to criminalise the purchase of sex, in a major blow to the SNP’s plans to introduce the so-called “Nordic Model” in Scotland. A YouGov poll of 1,088 Scottish adults, carried out for National Ugly Mugs (NUM), the UK’s sex worker victim support charity, shows that Scots firmly oppose the SNP’s controversial sex work policy agenda, including its foundational principle that sex work always equates to violence against women.

Scotland for Decrim replied to Ash Regan’s consultation, stating:

“We do not agree with the proposal to introduce a new criminal offence of paying for sexual services, often referred to as the ‘Nordic model’. Criminalising the purchase of sexual services would put sex workers in more danger, increasing the poverty, stigma, and violence we face.

Client criminalisation means that clients are more scared of getting caught by police, so they may insist on meeting in more isolated areas where there are fewer people around, which increases the risk of violence to sex workers. It also means that street-based workers have much less time to speak to a client to assess their behaviour and how much of a risk they might present, as the client wants to immediately move to a more isolated location. Criminalisation also means that clients are less likely to pay a deposit or to give references which enable sex workers to screen them. Screening includes checking if they are on any lists of bad clients, or if information has been shared about them by other workers to warn about dangerous behaviour. These are essential and established methods of reducing harm to sex workers which we undertake as a community to keep ourselves safe.

Criminalisation means that clients are less likely to report potential situations of trafficking or exploitation which they might witness, as they don’t want to be arrested. It makes it harder for the police and other services to find genuine victims of trafficking or exploitation, as advertising and workplaces are driven underground.

If criminalising the purchase of sex did result in a reduction in the number of clients, this would mean that the clients that remain are people who are more comfortable with breaking the law and may be more likely to be violent. Sex workers are forced to accept more dangerous clients if there are fewer clients available, because we still need to earn money in order to live. Increased criminalisation can make it more difficult to insist on clients using condoms, which puts sex workers at increased risk and negatively affects public health. Criminalisation also means that sex workers are more reluctant to engage with support services for fear of being ‘outed’ and potential associated consequences such as eviction or deportation; this worsens sex workers’ health outcomes.

Client criminalisation gives more powers to the police, but we know that the police cannot be trusted to protect sex workers, given how frequently they perpetrate harassment, abuse or violence against sex workers. For example, a 2021 report found that 42% of street-based sex workers in East London had experienced violence from the police.

A wealth of evidence shows that sex workers experience worse poverty and violence under the Nordic model, and are still criminalised themselves: sex workers in Nordic model countries continue to report receiving fines, being arrested, being evicted from their homes or deported, as a result of doing sex work.

Increasing the criminalisation of sex work simultaneously increases the stigmatisation of sex work and sex workers ourselves. Sex workers do not need stigmatisation or moral judgement from politicians or the public: we demand rights, not rescue. The government should not make policies or laws on sex work without involving sex workers ourselves. The government should ask us about how we want to protect ourselves and then put those actions into place.”

The Need for Decriminalisation

The recent push for the Nordic Model in Scotland has made sex workers and their allies once again take action and lobby for the full decriminalisation of sex work. Working under partial criminalisation is far from ideal, but working under the Nordic Model would be even more dangerous and detrimental to sex workers’ health and well-being.

In our response to Ash Regan’s consultation, we wrote:

“Every sex worker-led organisation in the UK is calling for the full decriminalisation of sex work: a legal model which decriminalises the sex worker, the client, and third parties such as managers, drivers, and landlords. Decriminalisation means that sex workers can work where and with whom they choose, without interference from the police unless workers choose to call them for help. Decriminalisation allows workers to access labour law to secure their rights, improve their working conditions, and tackle exploitation and harassment. Trafficking, exploitation, coercion and violence remain illegal under full decriminalisation.

Decriminalisation has been implemented in a number of Australian states over the past three decades, in New Zealand in 2003, and in Belgium in 2023. Sex worker-led organisations in these countries report an overall increase in safety, as workers feel more able to refuse risky clients, to report violence from clients, and to access healthcare. The full decriminalisation of sex work is endorsed by Amnesty International, the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, StopAIDS, Liberty, Freedom United, JCWI, the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women, and many other organisations.

Full decriminalisation is a necessary first step on the road to keeping sex workers safe. Sex workers also demand stronger anti-poverty measures from the Government, to ensure that no one is forced to resort to sex work if they don’t want to. The Hookers Against Hardship campaign makes demands to address this crisis, including: universal access to benefits at a living wage level, rent controls, an end to benefit sanctions, and ending the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition for migrants.”