Human rights concern over new sex offence plan

MPs and peers have expressed concern about government plans to create a new offence of having sex with a prostitute who is the victim of people trafficking.

The government's Policing and Crime Bill will create a 'strict liability' offence of paying or promising payment for the sexual services of a prostitute who is controlled for gain by a third person.

Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights said the offence is "extremely broadly drafted" and noted that it applies whether or not the person alleged to have committed the offence knew or ought to have known that any of the prostitute's activities were controlled for gain.

The report said the proposed offence "raises issues about whether the interference with the right to respect for private life, which includes sexual conduct, is sufficiently certain to satisfy the European Court of Human Rights requirement that such interferences be 'prescribed by law'".

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker has insisted that the proposal is "the most effective way of ensuring that those who pay for sex consider the circumstances of the prostitute who will be providing the sexual services".

"This is because it places the risk on the sex buyer of paying for sex with someone who is being controlled for gain," he said.

But the committee said it was "disappointed" the government had not published any evidence to demonstrates the need for the new offence.

"We conclude that the fact that the offence is one of strict liability will make it difficult for an individual to know how to regulate his conduct given that his knowledge is not an element of the offence," said the report.

"We have concerns about the breadth of the new offence and its potential impact beyond the group that the government seeks to target.

"In our view, the proposed offence has the potential to put women into more exploitative or unsafe situations, may not address the problem which the offence aims to target (namely exploitative prostitution) and may discourage reporting of such prostitution."

The report added that an absence of sufficient clarity about the circumstances which would be caught by the offence "makes it difficult for an individual to know how to regulate his conduct so as to avoid criminality and, as such, the offence in its current form is overbroad and lacks certainty".

It welcomed a government agreement to consider a free hotline to report concerns about trafficked women, but questioned if those who used the services of the prostitutes would call the hotline if they would "inevitably be admitting a criminal offence".