Conference notes:

1. The rise in the illegal forced trafficking of women for the sex trade, and the atrocious conditions in which trafficked women are often kept
2. That a large amount of police time and resources is spent attempting to tackle prostitution
3. The success of Edinburgh’s non-residential informal prostitution tolerance zone in reducing the number of street prostitutes; reducing violence, exploitation and drug abuse; and providing advice and assistance for prostitutes on health and safety issues, and on exiting the profession
4. The decision by Liverpool city council in 2005 to make a formal request to Government for an official tolerance zone

Conference believes:

1. That licensing prostitution, and criminalizing unlicensed prostitution, would create an incentive against forced prostitution
2. That prostitutes in countries where voluntary prostitution is tolerated and regulated are less likely to engage in unsafe practices such as unprotected sex, more likely to receive proper health attention, less likely to be kept forcibly in prostitution, and less likely to suffer physical abuse
3. That legalising voluntary prostitution in the UK would thus lead to an improvement in the lives and working conditions of prostitutes
4. That police resources would be better spent tackling forced prostitution, and trafficking in women for prostitution, than on enforcing current prostitution laws.
5. That though some object to prostitution on moral and religious grounds, liberal principle should uphold the right to such activities where the participants are consensual and do not cause harm to other people.

Conference therefore resolves:

1. To call for the legalisation of voluntary adult prostitution, male and female, with the following provisos
2. Designated zones for street prostitutes/brothels
3. Facilities to assist prostitutes with such issues as personal safety and drug addiction; and to facilitate exit routes
4. Safeguards against people being forced into prostitution, for example as an alternative to losing job seeker’s allowance
5. New criminal offences of having sex with an unlicensed prostitute, being an unlicensed prostitute, and living off the earnings of unlicensed prostitutes
6. Tougher penalties for those who force people into prostitution
7. To call for greater resources to be devoted to tackling forced trafficking and prostitution, funded as far as possible by shifting current resources directed against voluntary prostitution