Policing and Crime Act (Section 14)

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 14 December 2009.

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Photo of Fiona Mactaggart Fiona Mactaggart Labour, Slough 2:30, 14 December 2009

I thank the Department for that letter, but one thing that shocked me when I launched some research was how few men had ever been arrested for soliciting. One hundred and three men who had paid for sex were interviewed, but only 5 per cent. had been arrested, meaning only five or six men. The risk with the new offence is that men do not think they are going to be successfully prosecuted. Can the Minister promise me that the prosecution and publicity strategies will go hand in hand, so that men who pay for sex from exploited women know that they risk getting a criminal record?