These Government Inquiries come around every couple of years. They normally are ill thought out and start with the same preconceived views.
The last inquiry as from a group of self selected MPs who were all against sex work, called the
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade, the group were funded by the Christian charity CARE, and the result of the inquiry was predictable, criminalise clients, and don't make it safer for sex workers. Luckily APPGs don't have any power.
There though is a new inquiry from the Home Office Affairs Committee. This is taking written submissions to the
18th February 2016. This committee has more power that the APPG. The terms of reference don't make it look promising.
The Home Affairs Committee is launching an inquiry into the way prostitution is treated in legislation. In particular, the inquiry will assess whether the balance in the burden of criminality should shift to those who pay for sex rather than those who sell it.
What could they do, they could recommend that the law be changed to the Swedish model, they could target escort agencies, they could recommend a ban on advertising. It is unlikely they will recommend an improvement to the laws on consenting adults buying and selling sex in safety, in a decriminalised environment.
All the usual groups and organisations from the anti side, and sex worker side will be providing evidence. There are many sex work groups, health groups and academics who will be sending in evidence, as well as individual sex workers. Whether the evidence will be listened to is always in doubt. Always the horror stories from the anti's take precedence. This is why the ECP late last year ensured there were seminars in Parliament to ensure documentation of evidence was placed in the Houses of Parliament libraries.
If you are interested in providing your personal experiences of sex work, and how you could have a safer working environment then please contribute. More details are on the Home Office website. Beware that your submissions will be published on the site and that if you want sensitive information not to be published then you must make that clear.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news-parliament-2015/160114-new-inquiry---prostitution/
