Scottish Election 2016: Labour says prosecute those paying for sex, not prostitutes

In the UK, it is not illegal to pay for sex but public solicitation, running brothels and kerb-crawling are criminal offences.

Scottish Labour wants to decriminalise prostitution, but make paying for sex illegal (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

Scottish Labour has announced it wants to make paying for sex illegal but stop prosecuting prostitutes ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections.

The party said a new approach was needed to fight commercial sexual exploitation with currently only the victims facing punishment.

In its election manifesto, published on 27 April, the party will say: "Scottish Labour aims to tackle commercial sexual exploitation by challenging demand and by supporting those involved.

"It has a three-pronged framework: criminalising the buying of sex, decriminalising people involved in prostitution, and providing long-term support and exiting services for those exploited through prostitution."

Currently in Scotland, it is not illegal to pay for sex but public solicitation, running brothels and kerb-crawling are criminal offences.

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant, who spearheaded a campaign to make this law change, has said there would protect "the most vulnerable in our society" and reduce sex trafficking in Scotland.

Ms Grant told the Herald: "We have an unequal society where it appears that we concede that men are entitled to sexual gratification even when that is at the expense of women.

"Worse than that our laws punish the women exploited in this way. In no other part of our society do we criminalise someone who has been a victim of violence."

She added: "Scottish Labour believes that we need to build a fair and equal Scotland and that we cannot do this while allowing this exploitation to continue.

"We will decriminalise women in prostitution and provide them with the support and services they need to rebuild their lives and their health.

"This holds those who feed this industry to account for their actions, and will reduce demand for exploitative sexual activity. This will protect the most vulnerable in our society and will also reduce trafficking both within and to Scotland."

The Scottish sex workers' charity, ScotPep, said it could not support the policy because it believes such changes could put women in greater danger.

ScotPep also disagreed with the idea that all sex workers are "victims".

British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has given his support for the decriminalisation of selling sex, saying: "I want to be [in] a society where we don’t automatically criminalise people.

"Let’s do things a bit differently and in a bit more civilised way."