Overview
- New NPCC guidance tells officers to limit use of “prostitute/prostitution” to specific offences and adopt “sex work,” describing some individuals as “sexual entrepreneurs.”
- The APPG on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, chaired by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, branded the guidance harmful, noting “sex work” is absent from UK law and at odds with a Commons committee recommendation to avoid the term.
- APPG-cited data show steep declines in enforcement since 2010, including convictions for paying for sex from someone subjected to force falling from 43 to zero and soliciting prosecutions dropping from 208 to 25.
- The guidance says banning paying for sex could cause significant distress to some disabled officers whose only physical relationships may involve such services, a claim MPs called deeply offensive.
- MPs requested a ministerial meeting to press for Police Scotland’s model that frames paid sex as violence against women, as the Home Office announced funding for a pilot national intelligence and investigation hub and the NPCC defended the refreshed guidance as enabling consistent policing after consultation.