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Policing and Crime Bill

I have some sympathy with the amendment. I find it deeply frustrating that the Government continue to tinker with existing legislation on prostitution rather than engage in a thorough review of the enormous number of Acts and offences around the subject. Although I support the Government’s rather weak attempts to remove some of the stigma from those seeking to find a way out of prostitution by removing the term "a common prostitute", it is not nearly enough. The stigma of a name, while it is often an obstacle to getting a job, is only one small part of the problem. The very existence of a criminal record is a much more significant obstacle, as are the circumstances that led to prostitution in the first place.