UK Law & Human Rights

Legality of workers rights surrounding escorting within the U.K:

• Working as a prostitute in private is legal. Working as an escort is legal as long as escort agencies are not controlling. It is illegal for a prostitute to solicit or loiter in a public place. A prostitute can be subject to a section 17 order requiring her to engage with support services.

• Brothel Keeping : If you work with someone else in a flat you can be done for running a brothel, even if you are not there at the same time. Police have to prove that more than one person was providing sexual services for money. You don’t have to let the police in without a warrant. “Welfare visits” are often used to gather evidence against you. Get the police names and numbers.

• Work rotas, menus of sexual services, your name on the bills, texts, can all be used to incriminate you. Some women have been found not guilty by showing that the flat was run in a collective way for safety. A landlord can let premises to one sex worker but not if they know it is going to be used as a brothel. You can not sublet your flat to someone involved in “habitual prostitution”.

• Police and immigration raids, soliciting, “prostitute cautions”, civil orders, what to do if you, or someone you know, is threatened or attacked, working with other women, police seizing your money, are your clients breaking the law?   

​

• This rights sheet aims to ensure that sex workers, no matter where we work, know the law, how to protect ourselves from arrest, how to defend ourselves if charged, and where to get help. Also, by making public how harsh and unjust the laws are and how they undermine our safety we hope to build support for the decriminalisation of prostitution.