Church call on Sturgeon to introduce new prostitution law

The Church of Scotland has written to Nicola Sturgeon urging her to introduce new laws to tackle prostitution.

The Church want the purchase of sexual services to be outlawed, saying we should follow the ‘Nordic model’ as it could significantly reduce human trafficking and exploitation.

The letter was written by Prof Hazel Watson, convener of the Scottish Churches’ anti-human trafficking group, and signed by senior figures from a variety of other faith groups, including the Catholic Church, Anglicans, Muslims and Sikhs.

The letter says:”Sex trafficking does not just exist because its victims are vulnerable – it exists because there is a demand for commercial sex that traffickers can exploit and profit from.”

While Prof Watson praised the Scottish government for introducing the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill, she said: “We believe that there is an important element missing from the Bill and would urge you to consider supporting an amendment.”

She added: “It would be good to see Scotland incorporating the Nordic model, with a funding package supporting women to leave prostitution, into its anti-trafficking legislation.

“The Nordic model effectively curbs demand and consequently reduces the trafficking for sexual exploitation into the countries that adopt it.”

The Nordic model was passed into Swedish law in 1999 and has been successfully adopted by a number of countries reducing levels of human trafficking and exploitation.