Prostitution in Scotland

Prostitution in Scotland has been similar to that in England under the State of Union, but since devolution, the new Scottish Parliament has pursued its own policies.

In Scotland, prostitution itself (the exchange of sexual services for money) is legal, but associated activities (such as public solicitation, operating a brothel, or other forms of pimping) are criminal offences.

In 1982, the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 came into force. This prohibited soliciting, but also gave local councils the power to license places of entertainment. Edinburgh Council issued licenses to massage parlours and saunas, effectively allowing brothels. The council came under pressure not to renew the licences in 2012, but subsequently did renew them.

In 1985, Lothian and Borders Police negotiated with Edinburgh's prostitutes to form a tolerance zone in Leith's Coburg Street area. In return for the police "turning a blind eye", the prostitutes would stay within this area. Gentrification was happening in the Coburg Street area and in August 2001 the toleration zone was moved to an industrial estate in Salamander Street. Following protests from local residents the toleration zone was closed in November 2001.

Scottish National Party MSP Margo MacDonald introduced the Prostitution Tolerance Zones Bill to the Scottish Parliament in 2002. This would have allowed tolerance zones to be set up. Following an enquiry by an expert group into prostitution, the Bill was withdrawn in November 2005.

Aberdeen set up a tolerance zone in the dock area in 2001. The Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Act 2007 came into force in October 2007. This act criminalised kerb crawling and as result the tolerance zone was closed.

In 2013, the Scottish police forces were merged to form Police Scotland. Previously each local force had had its own policy regarding prostitution. Police Scotland applied one policy to all of Scotland. This resulted in raids on the saunas in June 2013. Many of the saunas were forced to close.

In April 2019, some sex work charities called for lawmakers in Scotland to reject a sex work policy, after statistics showed that violent crime against sex workers almost doubled after it was introduced in Ireland. The increase in Ireland was associated with the introduction of the "Nordic Model", a Swedish law which criminalises people who buy sex, rather than those who sell it. The statistic originated from UglyMugs, an app where sex workers can report incidents of abuse and crime, and receive alerts about dangerous clients.