Parliamentary Submissions

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 decriminalised, the University of Bristol Centre for Gender and Violence Research was commissioned by the government to investigate. The ECP mobilised 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 […]

15th August 2019

All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Commercial Sexual Exploitation: inquiry into trafficking for sexual exploitation (2019)

As a follow up to the Government commissioned review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the APPG launched its call for evidence on whether the legal framework of Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) “makes it a more attractive destination for those involved in trafficking adults for the purpose of sexual exploitation”. The ECP’s evidence detailed […]

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 […]

29th April 2019

UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (2018)

The UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights reports on UN member states’ ‘initiatives taken to promote and protect the rights of those living in extreme poverty’. The ECP’s submission to the Rapporteur points to the way austerity cuts have targeted women, with special note of single mothers, women who are carers, and EU […]

1st June 2018

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Shadow Report: Removal of Recommendation to Criminalise clients (2018)

The Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) draft shadow report to CEDAW initially included the recommendation to criminalise sex workers’ clients through adopting a “sex-buyer law” in England and Wales. The ECP alerted its network and coordinated complaints en masse from sex workers who argued they had been ignored. While the recommendation for the criminalisation of […]

22nd May 2018

Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (2018)

In 2018, the Government commissioned an independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The ECP submitted evidence of how despite millions of pounds of funding, victims of trafficking get little or no help from the authorities. Instead, anti-trafficking is used as a justification for police raids and arrests. This isolates sex workers and makes […]

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 […]