'Jail men who pay for sex'

 

By Rosa Prince, Daily Telegraph Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:57AM GMT 24 Dec 2007

Ms Harman is convinced a ban is necessary

Men who use prostitutes could soon face a fine or even jail under new plans to make it illegal to pay for sex.

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman, who is also women’s minister, confirmed the Government is studying the law in Sweden, where prostitution was recently made illegal.

At present it is not an offence to pay a prostitute, although women can be prosecuted for running a brothel or offering themselves for sale on the streets.

There are also some limits on kerb crawling, however this is usually dealt with using anti-social behaviour orders.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mrs Harman said she supported criminalising men who use prostitutes as a means of tackling the rising problem of sex trafficking.

She went on: "I think we do need to have a debate and unless you tackle the demand side of human trafficking which is fuelling this trade, we will not be able to protect women from it.

"That is what they’ve done in Sweden. My own personal view is that’s what we need to do as a next step.

"Do we think it’s right in the 21st century that women should be in a sex trade or do we think it’s exploitation and should be banned?

"Just because something has always gone on, it doesn’t mean you just wring your hands and say there’s nothing we can do about it."

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker and junior women’s minister Barbara Follett are due to visit Sweden and Amsterdam to examine the systems there.

And a powerful group of Labour MPs have tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which comes before Parliament in the New Year, giving local councils the power to declare certain areas no-go zones for prostitution.

Men who paid for sex with prostitutes within the zones would be liable for prosecution.

The amendment is being sponsored by former Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart, along with senior Labour backbenchers Denis MacShane and Barry Gardiner.

They say that while kerb-crawling is being successfully tackled, more needs to be done to help trafficked women, who are mainly forced to work in brothels and massage parlours.

Mr MacShane said: “The time has come to tackle the demand side of the ever-increasing exploitation of women and that means making men accept that they have responsibility for the sex-slave industry.

“These are ruthlessly exploited girls and women who are not willing sex workers but who are beaten, raped and held as prisoners to satisfy the demand of British men for paid-for sex.

“This is seedy, international crime and the men who pay for it should be made to accept their responsibility, just as laws to stop kerb crawling have seen an average 900 convictions a year since 2001 and helped reduce that part of the sex trade.”

As many as 25,000 women are thought to be working as prostitutes in the UK after being illegally trafficked into this country.

Estimates suggest another 55,000 British born sex workers are also in the trade, with 70 per cent starting out as prostitutes when they were under the age of 16.

In a 2000 survey of 11,000 men, one in 10 admitted to using prostitutes, up from one in 20 in 1990 but far lower than the figure in 1949 when one in four confessed to paying for sex.

Use of prostitutes was found to have reduced by a half in both Norway and Sweden after paying for sex was banned in 1999.

The Criminal Justice Bill also includes plans to remove the words "common prostitute" from the statute books, and to stop automatic fines for soliciting, which campaigners believe leads to a “revolving door” where women return to the streets to pay their court fees.

Instead, magistrates would be encouraged to send street girls to rehabilitation units to get help to leave the sex trade.

The English Collective of Prostitutes attacked Ms Harman’s support for the Swedish system and urged her to look at New Zealand’s system of legalising brothels instead.

Spokeswoman Cari Mitchell said: "The 1999 law introduced in Sweden which criminalised men who buy sex, who on conviction face six months in jail, has forced prostitution further underground, made women more vulnerable to violence, driven women into the hands of pimps and made it harder for the police to prosecute violent men and traffickers.

"Ministers are visiting Sweden and Amsterdam but New Zealand’s experience of decriminalising prostitution, where women are now more able to come forward and report violence, is being ignored."