London Assembly urges Metropolitan Police to scrap ‘prostitutes cautions’ for stigmatising sex workers

The ‘prostitute’s caution’ which can be issued without the right of appeal, is being called out of date and discriminatory

Sadiq Khan should work with the Metropolitan Police to get rid of ‘prostitute’s cautions’, the London Assembly has argued, because the law currently leaves sex workers ‘stigmatised for the rest of their lives’.

In a formal motion, which received unanimous, cross-party support from the Assembly, the mayor has been asked to look at the ‘out of date, discriminatory’ reprimand, which can affect a former prostitute’s future job prospects.

Although the exchange of sexual services for money is legal in the UK, it is illegal to solicit potential clients on the street or any other public place, including someone in a vehicle, and nor is it legal to advertise sexual services, including by putting cards in phone boxes.

When police catch a sex worker soliciting or advertising their services, they may issue them with a ‘prostitute’s caution’ – which differs from a standard police caution, because the person doesn’t have to admit guilt, and there is no right of appeal.

A simple police caution is spent after two and a half years, filtered out from someone’s record after six years and does not need to be disclosed to employers, but a ‘prostitute’s caution’ will show up on a woman’s enhanced DBS check until she is 100.

In the Assembly’s motion to Mr Khan, the mayor was asked to work with the Met Police ‘to change this, so women and people in sex work are not criminalised and stigmatised for the rest of their lives, by reducing the data retention times of a ‘prostitute’s caution’ to be comparable with a simple police caution’.

The motion was put forward by Green member and former mayoral candidate Zoe Garbett, who said the issue was ‘a stark injustice in our criminal justice system that disproportionately impacts some of the most marginalised people in our city’.

She added: ‘This specific caution is an extraordinary legal one-off… It demands no evidence of a criminal offence, yet its consequences will last a lifetime.

‘[In London, there were] 79 cautions in 2022 and nearly 50 last year. Behind each of these numbers is a person, a Londoner, whose life is being permanently restricted by an out-of-date, discriminatory practice.

‘This is not justice, this is not protection, this is systematic stigmatisation of a group of Londoners, predominantly women and marginalised people, which in turn creates barriers to employment and opportunities for decades to come.’

Her motion was seconded by Tory member Andrew Boff, who said: ‘Whatever view you take of sex work, it does seem unfair that a young person, who may have been forced onto the streets in order to sell sex by a pimp, should have to bear the consequences of that caution for the rest of their lives. It doesn’t stand up to natural justice and therefore it should go.’

A spokesman for the mayor suggested that Mr Khan was supportive of the idea but that it would require a change in the law at Westminster.

He said: ‘It is for the police to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to issue a ‘prostitute caution’, and a matter of law how long it is recorded for.

‘But the mayor is clear that there is a case to be made to review the legislation concerning offences of this nature. This should not be a stigma that anyone should have on their record for life.

‘Any safeguarding issues must also be referred to relevant agencies to ensure a joined-up approach is taken to protect the most vulnerable and marginalised.’

The Met Police declined to issue their own comment in response to the Assembly’s motion.

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