Meeting of the Parliament 03 February 2026 [Draft]
Let us be clear that prostitution is a form of violence against women and girls and that it can never be made safe. That is the Scottish Government’s position. It is a mystery to me why the Government did not then put a promise to deal with the issue in its programme for government. Such an effort would have had the resources of Government behind it, and we would not be talking right now about why we are running out of time to legislate on the issue.
Prostitution is a dangerous occupation, and in no other profession are women at such a risk of harm. We live in a world where men are dominant and more physically powerful, and the main perpetrators of violence against women and girls are men. Those facts were supported by the brave individuals who attended the Criminal Justice Committee to share their lived experience of assault, intimidation, rape and other forms of violence. Violence was described by many of them as normalised and frequently underreported. Its cumulative effect was long-term trauma, hypervigilance and symptoms consistent with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Prostitution is simply not a job like any other.
The desire for prostitution to be reduced and women to be given real choices was shared by most of the witnesses we heard from. I thank all the women who gave us their views, whether for or against the bill—I respect every one of them. However, I want to be crystal clear that Scottish Labour does not support the decriminalisation model as implemented in New Zealand, where prostitution has been described as harmless fun for men and even empowering for women. We heard from a 19-year-old survivor who said that she was raped after consenting to oral sex. She described being powerless to set boundaries with men who simply take what they want.
The bill is based on the Nordic model, which criminalises the sex buyer while decriminalising the seller. The bill is fundamentally about recognising that prostitution is a guaranteed way to harm women and get away with it. It is also about women exiting prostitution and saying to them that it is okay to leave and that those who do will be supported.
There is strong evidence that countries that have implemented a form of the Nordic model also see a reduction in sex trafficking, which is a serious crime. Obviously, that is a distinct issue, but such a reduction alone would justify members supporting the general principles of the bill.
One thing is certain: we cannot continue with the current system, which criminalises vulnerable women but does not criminalise men. It looks as though we will get to the end of this parliamentary session and still not criminalise men, but still criminalise women.
People think that it is perfectly valid to buy women’s bodies. Survivors have been brave enough to speak of the horrible things that they have experienced, such as being asked to wear their daughter’s clothes or being gang-raped by friends. Those are just some of the examples that speak to the wider societal harm of allowing, as a concept, men to buy sex. If members saw the news last night, they will have seen that men are filming women on nights out, sharing that as online content and making a fortune out of it. We have to understand the wider harms of being able to sell sex. It is visible to everyone.
This Parliament, like every other Parliament across the world that claims that it will challenge the trajectory of male violence, must find a route to deal with the uneven power dynamic within prostitution, where it is overwhelmingly women who are exploited and men who are causing harm. To those who say that sex work is a choice, I say that it is not a true choice for most of the women in prostitution, who are driven into it through poverty and other traumatic circumstances.
We heard some evidence that decriminalising the sale of sex would allow for sex buyers to be screened, but others say that it is exceptionally difficult for women to refuse buyers. One former sex worker said that her most violent experience happened in a brothel. She was choked and hurt by a man, and when she begged him to stop, he did not. She recounted that there were panic buttons installed in the rooms, a buzzer entry system to the premises, a sign-in system where punters used fake names, cameras outside and other girls who promised to help if something went wrong. She said that, when it came down to it, none of those security measures made any difference. In the end, she said that you are shut in a room with a man who has purchased your body and is almost always going to be significantly stronger than you. She said that, in her experience, men thrive on anonymity.
Dr Emma Forbes from the Crown Office said that men who are involved in buying sex
“are more likely to be perpetrators of domestic abuse and involved in other forms of violence against women and girls more broadly in our society through their treatment of other women.”