Policing Prostitution

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's recent speech to the Women's Institute (WI), encouraging members to join the fight against trafficking women into the UK sex trade, was bound to hit the headlines.

Enlisting the efforts of a bastion of British womanhood (the WI has more than 200,000 members in the UK) against the latest incarnation of what is generally regarded as the world's oldest profession was always going to excite the media. Even if, as in this case, the target was actually part of the media, in the shape of newspaper classified advertising offering thinly-veiled sexual services.

But while Ms Smith's rallying call was accepted enthusiastically by the WI, undoubtedly helping to raise awareness of those who are coerced into prostitution, the Government's overall strategy against the sex trade is not quite so straightforward, and has not won support from all quarters.

Concerns have been voiced over the real level of commitment to tackling trafficking, the proportion of prostitutes who are actually victims of trafficking, and whether the emphasis on targeting street prostitution and brothels (as opposed to decriminalisation or even legalisation) is actually counter-productive.

The Home Secretary's speech came just days after the publication of the Government's six-month review of the sex trade, Tackling the demand for prostitution.

Alongside the report's more general proposals on campaigning against sexual exploitation and trafficking, and new powers on closing premises linked to prostitution, two recommendations stand out.

The first, to remove the need for a persistent nuisance before someone can be charged with kerb-crawling, brings the law in England and Wales into line with that in Scotland, and is unlikely to generate much controversy.

However, the second recommendation, which will make it an offence for anyone to pay for sex with someone "controlled for another person's gain", is much more controversial, particularly as it will be a strict liability offence - so ignorance of the fact that a prostitute has a pimp or has been trafficked into the country will be no defence.

The proposed change in legislation reflects the Government's own thinking on tackling prostitution and the sex trade. It has moved away from the more radical proposals of licensed brothels and 'legalised zones', to a greater focus on those who control the sex trade or buy into it, rather than those who are supplying it. Speaking after the publication of the report, Ms Smith said that the Government had not favoured an outright ban on paying for sex (the act of prostitution itself is still not illegal) because there was little support for such a move, preferring instead to focus on reducing demand for trafficked women.

"I want to do everything we can to protect the thousands of vulnerable women coerced, exploited or trafficked into prostitution in our country, and to bring those who take advantage of them to justice," said the Home Secretary. "That is why I am determined to shift the focus onto the sex buyer, the person responsible for creating the demand for prostitution markets, which in turn creates demand for the vile trade of women being trafficked for sexual exploitation."

The proposals have been backed by ACPO, whose lead on prostitution, Gloucester Chief Constable Dr Tim Brain, said: "Any man who intends to pay for sex with a prostitute will have to think very carefully, because it will be no defence in future to claim that they did not know someone was trafficked or controlled by someone else for gain."

But not everyone is convinced that the change in legislation is the right way forward, and others question both the level of people trafficking in the sex trade, and extent of the Government's commitment to tackling trafficking. Niki Adams, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes, believes the Government's claims about the amount of trafficked women involved in prostitution are unreliable, and argues that the legislation will actually make things more dangerous for prostitutes.

Speaking recently on the BBC's Today programme, she said: "Most women in prostitution are not working for pimps, and most are not trafficked. The figures that the Government peddles are completely fabricated. "'Control for someone else's gain' is a very wide definition, and could apply to many women working in the sex industry.

The controlling legislation doesn't require force or coercion to be proved, it just requires money to change hands. "With this legislation, and the proposals on kerb-crawling, it means that women are going to end up taking more risks to earn money. If you clamp down on clients this way, it will push women into working underground, and make things more dangerous."

Certainly, it's difficult to estimate the actual level of trafficking in relation to prostitution. The Government's own figures suggest that there are around 80,000 people working in prostitution in the UK, while the most recent analysis by the Home Office estimated that up to 4,000 women in the UK had been trafficked for sexual exploitation.

This analysis dates from 2003, and there has undoubtedly been significant growth in people trafficking since then. But even if that figure had doubled over the past five years, it would suggest that around 10 per cent of those involved in prostitution are also victims of people trafficking - a figure which seems to be closer to the estimates of the English Collective of Prostitutes.

Nevertheless, it's also clear that anything which can be done to eliminate people-trafficking should be applauded, and the success of the two national police initiatives - Operation Pentameter 1 and 2 - targeting people trafficking was widely lauded by the Government. This made the announcement in November that the Met Police's Human Trafficking Team - Britain's largest dedicated human trafficking unit - is to close this year because of a lack of funding even more puzzling. The team was established in March 2007, and while the Home Office has maintained that the funding for the unit was always going to be time limited, the reduction in yearly funding for human trafficking investigations from £4m to £1.7m means the unit will close in April 2009.

The announcement prompted strong responses from politicians and campaigners alike, with a spokesman from pressure group Stop The Traffik describing the decision as "unfathomable". Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the decision to close the unit was "terribly sad and foolish". "This is going to leave a gaping hole in investigating crimes that cause untold hardship to many thousands of people," he added. "Just as the unit was beginning to have real successes, the Home Office has pulled the rug out from under it." It could be a decision that comes back to haunt the Home Office, as the proposals on prostitution, which are based in no small measure on the Government's desire to target people trafficking, are now in the Policing and Crime Bill announced in the Queen's Speech at the beginning of December.

With both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives likely to oppose the proposals on prostitution within the Bill, it seems that how we police the sex trade could become one of the political battle grounds over the coming parliamentary sessions.