Background
As of the bill's publication, prostitution itself is legal in Scotland but associated activities such as public solicitation, kerb crawling [4] and operating a brothel are criminal offences. [5]
In 2002, Margo MacDonald published the Prostitution Tolerance Zones (Scotland) Bill, which aimed to allow sex work in selected local areas. [6] [7] After being formally introduced in parliament in 2003, the bill was withdrawn in 2005. [8] In September 2015, Jean Urquhart proposed the Prostitution Law Reform (Scotland) Bill, which aimed to decriminalise sex work. [9] [10] [11] It was not passed before the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. [12]
The Scottish National Party's manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election contained a pledge to "challenge men's demand for prostitution". [13] [14] The party won a relative majority of seats in the election and formed the following government. [15] Ash Regan, then the Minister for Community Safety, subsequently reiterated the manifesto pledge. [16] [17]
In 2023, Regan established Unbuyable, a campaign to implement the Nordic model, describing it as a "a clarion call to end the systemic exploitation of women and girls in Scotland". [18] In March 2024, she blamed the Scottish Greens for the delay, claiming that they vetoed any action on the sex trade during their time in the Scottish Government under the Bute House Agreement. [19]
The bill
The Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill was proposed on 18 June 2024 by Regan, who had since crossed the floor to the Alba Party. [20] She described prostitution as "a system of commercial sexual exploitation that targets the vulnerable" [21] [22] The bill was formally introduced on 20 May 2025. [23]
Regan was criticised for misinterpreting concerns about the bill figuratively "driv[ing] prostitution underground" in an interview with The Herald on 1 June 2025, questioning how sex buyers could operate if the providers were "in underground cellars with a locked door". [24] [25] [26] [27]
In June 2025, the community safety minister Siobhian Brown expressed doubts about parts of the bill, including the quashing of solicitation convictions and the logistics surrounding the measures to help people leaving sex work. She reiterated her support for the Nordic model. [28] [29] [30]
In September 2025, The Herald reported that a domain name formerly owned by Regan was pointing to a website critical of the bill. [31]
Regan resigned from the Alba Party in October 2025 to prioritise her work on the bill. [32] [33] [34]
In November 2025, the Brown reiterated doubts about parts of the bill, adding that "substantial amendments" would be required for it to become law, citing "significant operational and policy challenges" with the bill, further stating that there was ministerial support for the Nordic model. Regan invited the government to cooperate with her on the bill and offered to remove the measures to repeal convictions, pointing to the use of pardons as an alternative. [35] [36] [37]
