Submissions and policy briefings

Evidence, submissions to parliamentary committees and briefings on proposals to change the law.

31st December 2019

Women and Equalities Select Committee (WEC) Inquiry into Prostitution: How can we tackle inequalities and harm? (2019)

The remit of the WEC inquiry focused on the “inequalities and harms that sex workers experience at work and the harms associated with prostitution as a whole”. The ECP mobilized its network to submit evidence and ensure that the research didn’t interpret the question of “harm” in a way that reinforces the view that prostitution is inherently […]

25th November 2019

Bristol Home Office Research (2019)

In response to the 2016 Home Affairs Committee recommendation that sex workers on the street and working together in premises be decriminalized, the University of Bristol Centre for Gender and Violence Research was commissioned by the government to investigate. The ECP mobilized its network to give evidence to ensure sex workers voices were heard. The […]

31st October 2019

Work and Pensions Committee Inquiry into Universal Credit and Survival Sex (2019)

Written and oral evidence from the ECP to the Work and Pensions Committee Inquiry into Universal Credit and Survival Sex focused on the impact of austerity on levels of prostitution in the UK. The Committee published its findings in November 2019 and recommended action against some of the worst injustices of the benefit system such as draconian […]

1st August 2019

Conservative Party Human Rights Commission Inquiry into the Reform of Prostitution Law (2018)

The ECP’s written and oral evidence focused on the intolerable poverty and increase in prostitution faced by women as a direct result of Conservative austerity cuts, as well as highlighting how destitution and criminalisation makes women and young people more vulnerable to exploitation and violence.In 2019, the CHRC published its report ‘The Limits of Consent’ recommending the […]

18th December 2017

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution report into pop up brothels (2017)

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution, a self-appointed group of MPs, launched an inquiry into the claimed increase of ‘pop-up brothels’. The ECP response points out how this APPG was deeply biased from the start as it was set up specifically to “tackle the demand for the sex trade”, that is promote legislation to criminalise clients. […]

1st July 2016

Home Affairs Select Committee Report (2016)

The ECP welcomed the Home Affairs Select Committee recommendation in 2016 that the law be changed ” “so that soliciting [a charge used against street-based sex workers] is no longer an offence and so that brothel-keeping provisions allow sex workers to share premises”. Crucially the Committee also calls for a law to delete “previous convictions and cautions […]

20th December 2014

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade (2014)

The ECP objected to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade report on the grounds that it was inherently biased as its stated aim was to ‘end demand for the sex trade’. Blatant inaccuracies in both the methodology and the content of the report were also criticised.Read the full statement

1st December 2014

Modern Slavery Bill (2014)

In 2012 a Labour woman MP proposed an amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill to make the purchase of sex illegal. Initially she had cross party support but after a campaign spearheaded by the ECP which saw thousands of sex workers lobby their MP, she was forced to withdraw the proposal. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell […]

31st December 2012

European Women’s Lobby (2012)

In December 2012 the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) held a conference in the European Parliament to demand a ban on the “purchase of sex”. The ECP response condemned the EWL for its reckless disregard of women’s lives for prioritising increased criminalisation at a time of increased poverty which was pushing more women, particularly mothers, into […]

1st December 2012

Criminalisation of Purchase of Sex Act (Scotland)

In 2012 Rhoda Grant MSP put forward a proposal to criminalise the purchase of sex. The ECP response provides evidence that criminalising clients neither stops prostitution nor prevents sex workers from being criminalised. Fact and testimony are provided to counter the myths and misleading research put forward by Ms Grant. The ECP submission concludes with […]