# Sex Work Decriminalisation Bill

*An act to repeal provisions criminalising kerb crawling, street prostitution, solicitation, and brothel-keeping, and to protect male sex workers from exploitation.*

**Section 1: Amendments to the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982**

(1) Section 46 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 is hereby repealed.

**Section 2: Repeal of the Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Act 2007**

(1) The Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Act 2007 is hereby repealed.

**Section 3: Amendments to the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995**

(1) Section 11 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 is hereby repealed.

(2) Section 7 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 is amended to read as follows:

> **7 Procuring**
>
> Any person who procures or attempts to procure any person to have unlawful sexual intercourse under Scottish law with any other person or persons in any part of the world shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

(3) In Section 8 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, replace all instances of "woman and girl" with "person".

(4) Amend Section 8(3) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 to read as follows --

> (3) Any person who detains any ~~woman or girl~~ **person** against ~~her~~ **their** will—
>
> (a) in or upon any premises with intent that ~~she~~ **they** may have unlawful sexual intercourse ~~with men or with a particular man~~; or
>
> (b) in any brothel,
>
> shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

(5) In Section 9 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, replace all instances of "girl" with "child".

(6) In Section 10 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, replace all instances of "girl" with "child".

**Section 2: Short Title**

(1) This Act may be cited as the Sex Work Decriminalisation Act 2022.

**Section 3: Commencement**

(1) This Act comes into force immediately after Royal Assent.

***

This Act was written by EvasiveBrotherhood on behalf of the Scottish Workers Party.

***

**Opening Speech**

Presiding Officer,

It is far beyond time for sex work to be fully decriminalised, and for outdated provisions in our law to be repealed or amended to protect all sex workers.

Firstly, I will briefly address what this law does. Section 1 repeals provisions criminalising street prostitution, allowing sex workers to publicly solicit for clients. Section 2 also repeals provisions criminalising the practice of "kerb crawling" -- essentially, soliciting a sex worker for services in a public place.

There are a number of amendments made to the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, but they all essentially do one of two things. The first -- namely, the repeal of Section 11 -- legalises the operation of brothels.

The other amendments remove gender-specific language that currently exists in Scottish law. Even if you may disagree with the main purpose of this legislation, I am sure that we can all agree that it is plain wrong that our current laws only prohibit coercive prostitution of women and girls, and not of men and boys. An additional amendment to Section 7 also repeals provisions that disallow the procurement of women and girls for overseas prostitution.

The aim of this bill is to implement the New Zealand model of sex work laws here in Scotland -- essentially, decriminalisation -- with the aim of reducing harm to sex workers by providing safe and legal options for sex work to operate.

Harsh laws attempting to crack down on sex work have done nothing but make the lives of sex workers harder. It is time for this Parliament to reject authoritarian and moralistic laws that harm sex workers, and allow sex workers to operate freely in a safe workplace.