Meeting of the Parliament 03 February 2026 [Draft]
I am very pleased to open on behalf of the Criminal Justice Committee. At the outset, I advise members that I have limited time to set out some of the key details from our stage 1 report; I will therefore take interventions at the end, if there is time.
First, I thank our excellent clerking team for the support that we have come to expect over the years, and the Scottish Parliament information centre and participation and communities team colleagues who supported us through the complexities of trauma-informed engagement with witnesses with lived and living experience. Although I have a deep personal interest in tackling gender-based abuse in Scotland, I speak today as convener of, and on behalf of, the whole committee.
The committee approached our scrutiny in a constructive and collegiate manner, and there were many areas of common agreement. The committee is grateful to all who gave evidence, particularly those with lived and living experience. We appreciate the bravery and honesty with which they shared their experiences and insight.
In addition to our oral evidence sessions, the committee received a substantial volume of written evidence, which set out strongly held views across both sides of the debate. Our aim has been, within the time available, to allow individuals on both sides of the debate to set out their positions.
In considering the evidence, it cannot be overstated that our overriding collective objective is to reduce the harm that is associated with prostitution. The committee took a great deal of time to agree and prepare our conclusions and recommendations, and I will highlight the main findings in our stage 1 report.
The most controversial proposal in the bill is a new offence to criminalise the purchase of a sexual act. The challenge that we faced in our scrutiny was to determine the likely impact of that proposed new offence and whether, as drafted, it could achieve its stated aims. In the time that was available to the committee, we considered the impact of the proposed offence on demand and on related activities such as human trafficking and, importantly, the implications for policing, the prosecution of offences and the safety of women.
Much of the evidence in that policy area is highly contested, which made reaching conclusions very difficult. However, after careful consideration of the evidence, the committee reached some unanimous conclusions: first, prostitution causes untold harm and misery for many of those who are involved; and secondly, we are fully supportive of the overall goal of the member in charge of the bill to reform the laws on prostitution in order to reduce the demand for and prevalence of prostitution in Scotland.
However, we identified concerns with the bill as it was drafted. A key concern is whether a new criminal offence could be enforced in such a way as to reduce the amount of prostitution in Scotland, as stated in the policy memorandum.
Police Scotland stated:
“We would need to find a model that allows us to be satisfied that the crime of the purchase of sex is complete.”—[Official Report, Criminal Justice Committee, 5 November 2025; c 9.]
The Crown Office stressed the importance of managing expectations with regard to the evidential difficulties in proving the offence. It is an offence that would invariably take place in private, that might be arranged online, and that could involve highly vulnerable individuals who might be reluctant to give evidence to secure a conviction.
We also heard concerns about the definition of a sexual act, including that behaviours excluded from the definition could be confusing.