Prostitution: Government Response to the Committee's Third Report of Session 2016-17

This is the government's response, published 2 December 2016.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the interim report and, while recognising the Committee's ambition, says the full implications of its recommendations must be properly considered, so it will await the final report before considering alternative approaches.

• It agrees there is a need for a research study into prostitution in England and Wales, and says the Home Office "will provide an interim report to Parliament by June 2017".
• On decriminalising soliciting, brothel-keeping and deleting convictions, it "notes" the Committee's recommendations and says its robust evidence base on scale and nature would "have to be established" before policy changes are considered.
• On child sexual exploitation, it agrees that protection and support for 16 and 17 year olds should continue past 18, and will publish practice guidance "later this year" stating that exploitation "does not cease just because a young person turns 18".
• On trafficking, it says it "will of course consider" how future legislative and policy changes support prevention, "consulting and working with relevant stakeholders as the work progresses".

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