Prostitution in the United Kingdom

In Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), prostitution itself (the exchange of sexual services for money) is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal on 1 June 2015.

In England and Wales, it is an offence to pay for sex with a prostitute who has been "subjected to force" and this is a strict liability offence (clients can be prosecuted even if they did not know the prostitute was forced).

Laws are not always strictly enforced, and there are reports of police forces turning a blind eye to brothels. Many brothels in cities such as Manchester and London operate under the name "Massage parlours".

Throughout Great Britain it is illegal to buy sex from a person younger than 18, although the age of consent for non-commercial sex is 16 throughout the United Kingdom.

The total number of prostitutes in the United Kingdom is not known exactly and is difficult to assess. In 2009 authorities and NGOs estimated that approximately 100,000 persons in the country were engaged in prostitution. Research published in 2015 indicated that there were approximately 72,800 sex workers in the UK; 88% were women, 6% men and 4% transgender. According to a 2009 study by TAMPEP, of all prostitutes in the UK, 41% were foreigners; however, in London this percentage was 80%. The total number of migrant prostitutes was significantly lower than in other Western countries (such as Spain and Italy where the percentage of all migrant prostitutes was 90%). The migrant prostitutes came from: Central Europe 43%, the Baltic states 10%, Eastern Europe 7%, the Balkans 4%, other EU countries 16%, Latin America 10%, Asia, 7%, Africa 2%, North America 1%. Thirty-five different countries of origin were identified. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, prostitution contributed £5.3 billion to the UK economy in 2009. In 2015 the HMRC set up a dedicated "adult entertainment task force" to collect unpaid income tax from, among others, online escort agencies.

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