Understanding Prostitution in Somerset: Laws, Support & Safety

Is Prostitution Legal in Somerset?

Prostitution itself (the exchange of sexual services for money) is not illegal in England and Wales, including Somerset. However, nearly all activities surrounding it are criminalised. This means while selling sex isn’t a crime, soliciting in public streets, kerb-crawling, operating a brothel, or controlling prostitution for gain are offences. Engaging in sexual activity in a public place is also illegal.

The legal landscape is complex. The Policing and Crime Act 2009 introduced the offence of “paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force”, aiming to target demand where exploitation is evident. Somerset Police enforce these laws, focusing on preventing exploitation, protecting vulnerable individuals, and tackling associated crimes like human trafficking, drug offences, and violence. The emphasis is increasingly on targeting those who exploit sex workers (pimps) and persistent kerb-crawlers, rather than criminalising the sex workers themselves, especially where vulnerability is identified. Support services often work alongside police in a ‘harm reduction’ model.

Where Can Sex Workers in Somerset Find Support?

Specialist support services exist in Somerset and the wider South West region to assist sex workers with health, safety, exiting the industry, and accessing essential resources. These organisations operate confidentially and non-judgmentally, understanding the complex reasons individuals enter and remain in sex work.

Key local and regional services include:

• One25 (Bristol-based, serves wider region): A leading charity offering outreach, drop-in support, health services (including sexual health screening), practical aid, and dedicated programs to help women exit sex work. While Bristol-based, they have outreach connections and accept referrals from Somerset.
• National Ugly Mugs (NUM): A vital UK-wide safety scheme where sex workers can anonymously report violent or dangerous clients, alerting others in the network. This is crucial for personal safety.
• Somerset Integrated Sexual Health Service: Provides confidential sexual health testing, treatment, and contraception.
• Local Charities & Drop-ins: Organisations like Arc (Taunton Association for the Homeless) or YMCA Dulverton Group may offer support, advice, or signposting to vulnerable individuals, including some involved in sex work.
• Police Vulnerability Teams: Somerset Police have teams focused on safeguarding vulnerable adults. They can signpost to support services and, in cases of exploitation or trafficking, investigate crimes.

Support focuses on harm reduction (providing condoms, safety advice), health access, emotional support, help with substance misuse (if applicable), housing assistance, and pathways out of sex work for those who wish to leave.

What are the Main Health and Safety Risks for Sex Workers?

Sex work carries significant health and safety risks, including violence, sexual assault, exploitation, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and mental health challenges. Working independently or in isolated locations, like some might in rural parts of Somerset, can increase vulnerability.

The most pressing risks include:

• Violence & Assault: From clients, partners, or those seeking to exploit them (pimps). This ranges from robbery and physical assault to rape and serious harm.
• Sexual Health: High risk of contracting STIs, including HIV, hepatitis, chlamydia, and gonorrhoea, particularly without consistent condom use. Accessing regular confidential screening is essential but can be a barrier.
• Exploitation & Trafficking: Coercion, control, debt bondage, and trafficking for sexual exploitation are serious risks. Individuals may feel trapped and unable to leave.
• Mental Health: Stigma, trauma, isolation, fear, and the nature of the work contribute to high rates of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and substance misuse as a coping mechanism.
• Substance Dependence: There can be a complex interplay between sex work and drug/alcohol dependency, sometimes used to cope or as a means of control by others.

Harm reduction strategies promoted by support services are vital: using NUM to screen clients, working with a buddy system if possible, ensuring someone knows location/client details, consistent condom use, regular STI checks, and accessing support for mental health or substance use.

How Does Law Enforcement Approach Prostitution in Somerset?

Somerset Police primarily focus on preventing exploitation, protecting vulnerable individuals, disrupting associated criminality, and targeting those who create harm (exploiters, traffickers, violent clients). The approach is guided by the National Policing Sex Work and Prostitution Guidance, which prioritises safeguarding.

Key aspects of their approach include:

• Safeguarding First: When encountering individuals selling sex, officers are trained to identify vulnerability, signs of trafficking, coercion, or exploitation. The primary response is often signposting to support services (like One25) rather than prosecution for soliciting, especially for those deemed vulnerable.
• Targeting Exploiters & Traffickers: Significant resources target organised crime groups involved in trafficking and controlling prostitution. Operations focus on disrupting brothels run exploitatively.
• Tackling Kerb-Crawling & Soliciting: While not always the top priority, persistent kerb-crawling and public soliciting that causes community concern are policed. This can involve targeted patrols, warning notices, and prosecutions.
• Multi-Agency Working: Police work closely with local authorities, health services, and charities like One25 in Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) and other forums to share information (where appropriate and legal) and coordinate support for high-risk individuals.
• Enforcing Laws Against Exploitative Buyers: Using laws like Section 14 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 to prosecute those paying for sex with someone subjected to force, threats, or deception.

The emphasis is shifting towards a “Nordic Model” style approach, focusing on reducing demand by targeting buyers and exploiters while decriminalising and supporting those selling sex, viewing them more as victims needing support.

What Resources Exist to Help Someone Exit Sex Work in Somerset?

Exiting sex work is challenging but supported by specialist services offering practical help, emotional support, and long-term pathways to alternative livelihoods. Key resources, while sometimes needing to be accessed regionally, are available to Somerset residents.

Organisations providing dedicated exit support include:

• One25: Their flagship service is the ‘Journey to Independence’ programme. This offers intensive, personalised support over 18-24 months, including trauma-informed therapy, life skills training, education/employment support, housing assistance, and building healthy relationships. They work closely with local agencies in Somerset where needed.
• Unseen UK (Bristol-based): Specialises in supporting victims of modern slavery and trafficking, which includes many exploited in sex work. They offer safe housing, legal advice, counselling, and support for recovery and reintegration.
• Local Authority Support: Somerset Council’s Adult Social Care and Housing teams can assist vulnerable adults, including those exiting sex work, particularly if they are homeless, have mental health needs, or are victims of crime/exploitation. Accessing support often requires disclosure.
• Mental Health Services: Accessing NHS talking therapies (IAPT) or specialist trauma services (like the Somerset Trauma Service) is often crucial for addressing underlying issues related to entering and exiting sex work.
• Jobcentre Plus & Skills Training: For support with benefits, CV writing, skills development, and finding employment or training opportunities away from the sex industry.

Exit requires stability (safe housing, financial security), addressing trauma and substance use, building self-esteem, developing new skills, and creating a supportive social network – all areas specialist services aim to provide.

Is Street Prostitution Common in Somerset Towns?

Visible street prostitution (soliciting) is less prevalent in Somerset’s towns compared to larger cities, but it does exist, often in specific, less visible locations rather than main streets. The nature of sex work has also shifted significantly online.

Factors influencing this include:

• Urban vs. Rural: Larger towns like Taunton, Yeovil, or Bridgwater are more likely to have some visible activity than smaller market towns or villages, though it’s often discreet.
• Shift to Online: The vast majority of sex work advertising and contact now happens online through dedicated platforms, directories, and social media. This makes independent escorting far more common and less visible than street-based work.
• Enforcement & Displacement: Police enforcement targeting kerb-crawling and soliciting can displace activity to more hidden areas (industrial estates, secluded roads) or push it further online.
• Community Complaints: Reports from residents about soliciting or kerb-crawling in specific neighbourhoods often trigger targeted police action, influencing where activity occurs.

While street sex work carries higher risks of violence and exploitation, online work has its own dangers (difficulty verifying clients, potential for online harassment, risk of encountering dangerous individuals in private settings). Support services like NUM are crucial for safety in both contexts.

What is the Difference Between Independent Escorts and Street-Based Sex Workers?

The key differences lie in working environment, control, visibility, pricing, and often, levels of risk and autonomy. However, individuals may move between different sectors.

Understanding the distinctions:

• Independent Escorts:
  • Typically advertise online (websites, directories, social media).
  • Work independently, managing their own bookings, fees, and boundaries.
  • Usually see clients in private settings (their own home, rented premises – though operating a brothel is illegal, or visiting clients’ homes/hotels).
  • Generally charge higher fees.
  • Have greater control over client selection and services offered.
  • Less visible to the public and police.
  • Lower risk of street violence but still face risks in private settings.
• Street-Based Sex Workers:
  • Solicit clients in public places (streets, parks).
  • Often work in more visible, sometimes isolated, locations.
  • Have less time to screen clients, leading to higher risks of violence, robbery, and assault.
  • Often charge lower fees per transaction.
  • More likely to be controlled by a third party (pimp) or driven by immediate need (e.g., funding addiction).
  • More visible to police and community, leading to higher likelihood of arrest for soliciting.
  • Experience greater vulnerability to exploitation, adverse weather, and public stigma.

Support services encounter individuals across this spectrum. While independent escorts may face less immediate physical danger on the street, both groups are vulnerable to sexual violence, STIs, exploitation by third parties, mental health struggles, and legal complications. The perception of greater safety or autonomy in independent work can sometimes mask underlying vulnerabilities or risks.

How Can the Community Support Vulnerable Individuals Involved in Sex Work?

Community support involves reducing stigma, promoting access to services, reporting concerns safely, and supporting organisations that provide direct help. Compassion and understanding are key.

Practical ways the Somerset community can help:

• Challenge Stigma: Avoid judgmental language and recognise the complex factors (poverty, abuse, addiction, trafficking, homelessness) that often lead individuals into sex work. Stigma prevents people seeking help.
• Support Local Services: Donate to or volunteer with organisations like One25 (if possible, even remotely) or local charities supporting vulnerable women, homeless individuals, or those with addiction issues. These services are lifelines.
• Report Safely & Appropriately:
  • If you witness someone who appears vulnerable, distressed, or potentially exploited, contact local support services anonymously if possible to alert outreach workers.
  • Report *serious* concerns about exploitation or trafficking to the Modern Slavery Helpline (08000 121 700) or police (101 or 999 in an emergency). Avoid reporting low-level soliciting unless it’s causing significant community harm, as this can further criminalise vulnerable individuals.
  • Report dangerous kerb-crawling or anti-social behaviour linked to prostitution to the police via 101, providing specific details (location, time, vehicle registration).
• Promote Harm Reduction: Support initiatives like needle exchanges or condom distribution programs that indirectly help sex workers stay safer.
• Advocate for Policy Change: Support calls for policy approaches that prioritise decriminalisation of sex workers and target exploiters and traffickers, based on evidence that this improves safety and access to support.

The most valuable support is often non-judgmental and focuses on the individual’s safety and well-being rather than moral condemnation. Supporting the agencies equipped to provide professional help is the most effective community action.