Bill won't reduce prostitution nuisance, say MSPs
9 Jan 07
Committee wants key amendments before bill is recoommended
MSPs have demanded substantial changes to the Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Bill before it can be recommended to parliament.
In its stage 1 report on the bill the Local Government and Transport Committee said that it supports the broad aims of the bill - tackling the nuisance and offence caused to communities by street prostitution - but wants key amendments made.
The committee is concerned that the bill would criminalise soliciting and those "loitering for the purposes of prostitution", but that loitering in a private car would not be an offence. This, the committee states, is unacceptable.
The committee also considers that it will be difficult to prosecute people successfully for soliciting and loitering to buy sex, as these prosecutions will rely on the purchasers incriminating themselves in some way.
"Management" or "tolerance" zones, such as in Aberdeen, operate despite not being supported by the Scottish Executive. The committee wants the new prostitution laws to be applied consistently across Scotland.
It also wants tougher sentencing for those who buy sex, on the view that to iimpose the same level of penalty on prostitutes and their clients will have a disproportionate impact on the former.
"Real progress" demanded
Bristow Muldoon, convener of the local government and transport committee, said the committee thought that if the bill was not amended, it would not address the problems faced by communities affected by prostitution. The committee, he added, "expects real progress to be made by ministers in turning their developing thinking into real commitments before the Parliament debates and votes on the general principles of the bill".
The Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, George Lyon MSP, is currently considering amending the bill to keep the existing law in place for sellers and applying the new offences only to those buying sex, introducing greater penalties for those buying sex, criminalising loitering in a private car and making sure that new offences apply throughout Scotland.
The stage 1 report can be viewed on the parliament website at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/lg/reports-07/lgr07-01-00.htm .