Criminal Justice Committee 26 November 2025 [Draft]
It will not make women more unsafe. No evidence has been presented that suggests that the Nordic model makes women more unsafe. That was one of the key notes that I took from Professor Jo Phoenix’s evidence. She has been a researcher and criminologist in this area for more than 30 years, and she said that there was no causal relationship, and no evidence had been presented for it, between the Nordic legislative model and making women more unsafe. I can state that categorically to the committee.
I turn to what we all agree on. People on my side of the argument who want to adopt the Nordic or equality model, and those who suggest that we should be pursuing another model, all agree on one fact: prostitution is inherently dangerous, violent, abusive and exploitative. The reason for that is the behaviour of the buyers, or punters. That is what makes it unsafe. I put it to the committee that, if prostitution is unsafe, dangerous and violent—I will give the committee the murder rates by country in a minute, to illustrate my point—that means that the larger the prostitution market in the country, the more women are going to be dragged into that and harmed, and possibly murdered. The smaller the prostitution market, the smaller the number of women who are going to be harmed.
I will not say to you that you can ever make prostitution safe. You can never, ever make prostitution safe—it is violent and abusive. What you can do, by using the Nordic type of legislative approach, is shrink the market down as much as possible, and the better you enforce the legislation, the smaller your market will be, as we have seen in countries where they follow robust enforcement.