Using a prostitute to be made a criminal offence

Where does the 99% figure come from? If that is the case then that renders the issue to be something entirely different. What that means is that drug additicts turn to prostitution to make money to feed their habits making the real issue hard drugs and not some sort of moral and legal judgement on the act of prostitution.

Since prostitution is a symptom of drug addiction I think that further criminalising it is counter productive to getting these women off drugs and back into a life they're comfortable with. If what they're doing is demonised in the eyes of the law then they don't have the law on their side to help them - how can they go to the police if they're trapped in a cycle of illegal activity?

I agree with Rich that that prostitution has survived in every corner of the globe for centuries and that instead of sending it underground and demonising the women that take part in it we should be open, fair and honest about it so we can regulate it properly without the burden of moral dogma.

Prostitution is always going to exist - it's survived for centuries and in nearly every society. Controlling and regulating it would make it much safer for the women involved and would help tackle the growing people-trafficking issue.

As they should.. no man can say that a woman is is being forced into servitude by a trafficker, has consented to sex/sexual favours.

its all well and nice to demonise this kind of industry but has anyone ever considered legalising it? i mean if its legalised it can be taxed and therefore regulated. thus turning what were before exploited working girls ostrasised by modern tabboo's into prodictive members of society. Its worked in Holland and parts of America, so why not here?

Fine, but as the woman in the story points out, what the fuck are they supposed to do for money? 99% of prostitutes are addicted to drugs, and there's approximately zero chance of being offered a bed in a rehab ward on the NHS, unless you've also been horribly injured in some way.

This is a brave step for the government to make, but it's not the end.

Finally something is going to be done about the misogynistic laws we have, which seem anachronistic and punish women. The way the law is right now, it's fine to pay for sex legally - but not to sell it. A perfect example of eighteenth-century hypocritical logic.