Ministers seek major changes to prostitution bill

Ash Regan says she still hopes to rally MSPs behind her legislation

The Scottish government "strongly supports" making it illegal to buy sex - but has voiced "significant concerns" about a bill being considered at Holyrood.

Ministers want to see "substantial amendments" to legislation tabled by independent MSP Ash Regan, meaning it is unlikely to pass before parliament breaks up for next year's election.

Regan's bill aims to reduce prostitution by tackling demand for it, and community safety minister Siobhian Brown told Holyrood's criminal justice committee that the government backs the idea in principle.

But she said sweeping changes were needed to make the law workable, and that there was unlikely to be time to draft them in the 16 weeks left this term.

Regan said she would continue to press MSPs and the government to agree the reforms, which she said would help address violence against women.

At present, soliciting in public, "kerb crawling" and brothel-keeping are illegal but paying for sex and arranging for it online are legal.

In the 2021 elections, the SNP had pledged to develop a model which challenged men's demand for purchasing sex, and Regan initially took this forward as community safety minister.

However, the proposals did not make it into law, and the MSP drew up legislation of her own after defecting from the SNP to Alba.

She later quit Alba following a failed leadership bid, saying she wanted to focus on getting the proposals through Holyrood.

But that now looks unlikely, after her successor in government indicated there would not be time to make the bill legally watertight.

Siobhian Brown said there was little time to make the big changes needed

Regan's Prostitution (Offences and Support) bill would replace the existing law on soliciting with one which outlaws paying for sexual services.

She said this would serve to tackle the fact most prostitution now happens "off-street" and is arranged online.

She said that "buying sexual access to a human being is a form of male violence".

However, the proposals had a mixed reaction from sex workers, with some saying it could make them less safe by making it harder to screen potential clients.

The bill is still at an early stage and is being examined by Holyrood's criminal justice committee before it is voted on for the first time.

Giving evidence, Brown told MSPs that ministers "strongly support the principle of legislating to criminalise purchases of sex" - but that they have "significant concerns with the bill as it is currently drafted".

She said much more detail was needed about how the law would work in practice, and that "substantial amendments" were needed to create a "clear and unambiguous" bill.

And she said she was "concerned there may not be enough parliamentary time to develop amendments that we can all agree on and have confidence in", saying there would need to be "significant consultation" about changes.

Regan - who is due to give evidence to the committee herself next week - appealed to the government to work with her on the necessary changes.

Brown replied that there was still a lot of legislation to work on in the 16 weeks left before Holyrood breaks for the election, and that she did not have a team which could work specifically with Regan.

She said the government would consider the detail of any amendments brought forward.