Menu
English Collective of Prostitutes
  • About us
    • About us
    • International
    • History
    • Archive
    • Contact us
    • Press enquiries
  • Latest news
  • Campaigns
    • Decriminalise sex work – safety first!
    • Migrant Sex Workers Fight Police Illegality & Racism
  • Resources
    • Rights
    • Fact sheets
    • Sex workers speak out
    • Bulletins
    • Reports
    • Books & zines
  • Law & Policy
    • Laws
    • Legal cases
    • Submissions and policy briefings
  • Support us
    • Covid-19 action alert
    • Donate
    • Sign our petition
    • Volunteer
  • Get help
Close Menu
25th November 2020

Action Alert: Stand up for sex workers’ safety in Scotland – Deadline 10 December

English Collective of Prostitutes Action alerts, Latest News Criminalisation of clients, Parliamentary

Dear friends,

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on ‘challenging men’s demand for prostitution’. Outrageously, they have presented this as part of its Equally Safe strategy.

Please see the below tools from our colleagues at Scot-Pep who are encouraging as many organisations and individuals as possible to respond to the survey. Their helpful guidance highlights the dangers of criminalisation, including the criminalisation of clients, and sex workers’ demands for decriminalisation, safety and the need for money and other material support. You don’t have to live in Scotland to respond. The deadline is 10 DECEMBER. Please share your response if you can on #NotEqualNotSafe.

If you need additional information about the dangers of criminalising clients then please also see our briefing: No Nordic Model – Criminalising Clients Undermines Sex Workers’ Safety.

Best wishes,

Laura

A picture containing text Description automatically generated

Responding to the Scottish Government’s ‘Equally Safe’ Consultation

In September 2020, the Scottish Government announced a new consultation on ‘challenging men’s demand for prostitution, working to reduce the harms associated with prostitution and helping women to exit’.

The consultation closes on Thursday 10 December 2020. You can find all the information on the consultation on the Scottish Government website here: https://consult.gov.scot/violence-against-women-team/equally-safe-reduce-harms-associated-prostitution/ 

Why this matters for sex workers

We are concerned that this consultation forms part of a push from the Scottish Government to introduce the criminalisation of clients (sometimes called the ‘Nordic Model’). There is very little focus on how to keep sex workers safe, instead focusing on ‘reducing demand’ for sex and on men’s attitudes towards prostitution. 

There have been several attempts to introduce the criminalisation of clients in Scotland. We are calling on the Scottish Government to stop their push for further criminalisation of sex work.  Sex workers strongly oppose the criminalisation of clients (whether it’s called the ‘Nordic Model’ or the ‘Scottish Model’) because it increases violence against sex workers and forces us to work under more precarious conditions. We want to make sure their push for criminalisation is strongly opposed through this consultation and not re-introduced in future. 

Scot Pep will be submitting a detailed response to the consultation, but we would also encourage sex workers and allies to submit their own responses to the consultation. 

You can use our guidance to help inform your response, and add in other information – including personal experience – to your answers.

How to respond

There are nine questions in the consultation, but you do not have to answer them all. If you are responding as an individual, you can submit your response anonymously. You do not have to live in Scotland to respond to this consultation. 

We have outlined some points to consider in your responses, which you can download as a PDF here. 

You can respond to the consultation in several ways.

Use our online tool

You can submit a response to the consultation using our online tool here. We have drafted answers based on our primary concerns with the framing and content of the consultation, but we strongly encourage you to edit the response before you send it, including to add any personal experiences that are relevant. 
 
We have made this online tool available partly due to sex workers’ concerns about sharing their personal details with the Scottish Government where they identify themselves a sex worker. We know it can be intimidating to share sensitive information in this way and we hope this simplifies the process. 
 

Directly through the Scottish Government’s website ‘Citizen Space’

You can respond to the consultation directly through Citizen Space here. 

Directly by email

You can email your consultation response directly to vawgconsultations@gov.scot. 

By post

You can post your consultation response directly to:

Violence against Women and Girls and Barnahus Justice Unit
Scottish Government
GWR St Andrew’s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

For responses to Scottish Government consultations, you will be asked to include a Respondent Information Form, which you can find in the consultation document as a pdf. If you use Citizen Space, this is included in the online form. If you are responding as an individual, none of the information on this form is mandatory. You are allowed to submit your response anonymously if you are responding as an individual. 

You will be asked if you are happy for your response to be published with your name, without your name, or not published at all. If it is not published, the content of your response will still be analysed and the information you send in will still be considered. If you do not complete the Respondent Information Form, your response will not be published. 

If you want to keep up to date with our work on this consultation, and other news and updates, you can sign up to the Scot-Pep newsletter here. 

Responding to the Scottish Government’s ‘Equally Safe’ Consultation
BBC News: Covid: Second lockdown ‘will deepen sex work crisis’ KOS Magazine: Sex work during COVID-19

Related Posts

Latest News, Media coverage

Independent: High Court legal fight over criminal records

Action alerts, Latest News

Action Alert: Ask your MP to oppose Diana Johnson’s Sexual Exploitation Bill

Latest News, Media coverage

Independent: Growing numbers of women turning to sex work as Covid crisis pushes them into ‘desperate poverty’

Categories

  • Action alerts
  • Bulletins
  • Events
  • International
  • Latest News
  • Legal cases
  • Media coverage
  • Press releases
  • Sex workers speak out
  • Statements
  • Submissions and policy briefings
  • Videos & Podcasts

Archives

Join our mailing list


Browse by key word

#MakeAllWomenSafe #NoBadWomen Advertising Coronavirus Crackdowns on street workers Criminalisation of clients Decriminalisation Decriminalisation vs. legalisation Deportations ECP History Feminist France Global Women's Strike Home Affairs Committee International Women's Strike Ipswich LGBTQ Migrant Morality Mothers New Zealand Olympics Parliamentary Police illegality and racism Policing and Crime Act Pop-up brothels Poverty Private prosecution for rape Proceeds of Crime Act Raids arrests and prosecutions Safety First Coalition Soho Strippers Students Survival Sex Sweden Trade Unions Trafficking Trans United States Universal Credit and benefit cuts US PROStitutes Collective Violence Wages For Housework Women Against Rape
Back To Top
English Collective of Prostitutes

About us

  • Contact us
  • History

Press

  • Latest news
  • Press enquiries

Follow us

© 2019 English Collective of Prostitutes