MSPs vote down Ash Regan’s prostitution bill

The Scottish Parliament has voted down plans to criminalise the purchase of sex.

Victims and community safety minister Siobhian Brown said the government “regretfully” could not support the bill due to concerns with its drafting.

The government announced on Monday it would not back it, despite recognising prostitution as a form of violence against women, as there was not enough time left of this parliamentary session to amend it to deliver its aims.

The bill fell by 64 votes to 54 – though six SNP MSPs rebelled to back the proposal.

Regan said her Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill was “not out of time” but was “overdue”.

She also criticised the government’s plan to set up a commission to advise the next administration on taking fresh legislation forward.

Regan said: “Politicians may write bold strategies on prostitution, yet they repeatedly fail to confront the root cause of sexual exploitation which of course is the demand to buy sex.”

She continued: “This Unbuyable bill recognises prostitution for what it is: a system of exploitation and violence sustained by demand. It decriminalises those who are sold, recognising them as people constrained by vulnerability and not offenders, and it places criminality and that accountability where it has never properly sat in Scots law, with those who buy sexual access and those who profit from the sale of sexual access to human beings.

“This is not radical; this is closing a gap in the law that has existed for nearly 20 years.”

Brown insisted the parliament did not have enough time to suitably amend the bill in the six weeks left before dissolution.

She said: “Whilst the Scottish Government strongly supports the principle of criminalising those who purchase sex, the bill’s aims to protect women, legislation in principle alone is not sufficient to ensure that we deliver that aim.”

The Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour both backed the general principles of the bill.

Tory justice spokesperson Liam Kerr said: “This bill has as its aim the reduction of violence against women and girls. It is flawed, but it might – it just might – with amendments and determination achieve that protection and reduce the violence.

“And if it might, we have a duty, we have an obligation, to try. The government says there is not time. I say make the time.”

Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill said allowing men to purchase sex “effectively encourages” them to “view women as commodities”.

She added: “We cannot continue with the current system which criminalises largely vulnerable women but does not criminalise men. And it looks like we’ll get to the end of this parliament, and we will still not have criminalised men but criminal women.”

Despite the government’s stance, SNP MSPs Michelle Thomson, Ruth Maguire, Stephanie Callaghan, Annabelle Ewing, Kenneth Gibson and Elena Whitham broke the whip to vote in favour of progressing Regan’s bill.

Thomson criticised the Criminal Justice Committee, which scrutinised the bill at stage one, saying it had failed to scrutinise “contested evidence”. She argued there was  “no credible claim” the bill would harm women.

She also described the government’s response as “less than compelling” and expressed her frustration that members had not been allowed a free vote.

She added: “Women should not be legally bought as commodities and raped for money. That is the nub of today’s debate. We are wrestling with the principle of the commoditisation of women and principle of male demand.”

The Scottish Greens voted against the bill. The party’s pre-existing policy is that prostitution is not violence against women.

Justice spokesperson Maggie Chapman said: “Sex work is work. It might not be work one agrees with, it might not be work one would ever do, one might not ever procure the services of a sex worker. But some people do that work. Many of them do it out of their own free will.”

Acknowledging that it was “not the case” that all prostitutes were voluntarily involved, she called for “clear support” to help those women – but warned the bill would make prostitutes generally less safe by pushing the industry “further underground”.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats also voted against the bill. The party’s policy is in favour of full decriminalisation.

Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said countries in which the measures proposed in the bill had been adopted had not seen a reduction in harm to women. He added: “We can’t wish prostitution away and, as it will forever exist, we need to make sure that it happens in the safest possible way.”

Tory MSP Edward Mountain also voted against the bill.

The debate on Wednesday afternoon became fractious at times, with multiple members calling for it to be given more time.

Former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross called for a motion without notice to be allowed to lengthen the debate.

But deputy presiding officer Liam McArthur refused the request, stating: “This is matter that has been considered extensively by the bureau, over multiple sessions and with the member in charge. Parliament has set a time and motion which I am going to adhere to.”