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 violent and exploitative, and that sex workers are vulnerable victims in need of saving by more police and repression.
The ECP’s written submission, which included the direct experience of 5 women in its network, emphasised the preventable harms that are inflicted on sex workers by arrests, raids and criminalisation generally, as well as the harm caused by austerity cuts.