Overview
- An all-party parliamentary group led by Tonia Antoniazzi wrote to policing and crime minister Sarah Jones calling the NPCC’s new guidance harmful and normalising of commercial sexual exploitation.
- The document reframes prostitution as “sex work”, tells officers to reserve “prostitute” for specific offences, and defines some individuals as “sexual entrepreneurs” or engaged in a “career choice”.
- One passage says a ban on paying for sex could distress disabled officers who may rely on such services, which MPs condemned as a deeply offensive claim.
- MPs cited steep declines in enforcement, including convictions for paying for sex from someone under force falling from 43 in 2010 to none in 2023, with sharp drops in soliciting, brothel-keeping and pimping cases.
- They requested a meeting and urged adoption of Police Scotland’s model, while the Home Office said it will use every lever available and is funding a pilot national intelligence and investigation hub for sexual exploitation.