Issue - meetings
Task Group report - Services for women in and exiting Prostitution
Meeting: 12/04/2010 - Executive (Item 8)
8 Task Group report - services for women in and exiting prostitution PDF 129 KB
This report brings to the Executive the work, findings and recommendations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s task group investigation into Services for Women in and exiting prostitution.
Additional documents:
Decision:
(i) that the recommendations set out in the report be agreed;
(ii) that the task group members be thanked for their work.
Minutes:
The Executive had before them a report from the Director of Policy and Regeneration to which was appended the work and findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s task group investigation into services for women entering and exiting prostitution. Councillor John (Task Group Chair) and Councillor Clues (Task Group member) were in attendance to introduce the report which had taken a year to complete due to its complexity. Councillor John advised that only a few councils had looked at this area and the task group had been set up following the publication of Eaves POPPY Project’s report Big Brothel which highlighted the scale and nature of the brothel based sex industry in London. Another reason for concern was that international events were known to increase prostitution levels and Brent was an Olympic borough with Wembley at its centre. The Eaves POPPY project had found that Brent’s local press had high levels of adverts for brothels. Street prostitution involved women from a range of backgrounds many of whom were coerced and vulnerable, most of whom would rather be earning their living in another way. Councillor John called for a change in attitudes and for the demand for prostitution also to be addressed. The task group had been disappointed that to date, unlike in neighbouring boroughs, the local press were reluctant to take steps to reduce the number of advertisements for brothels and prostitutes. The issues raised by the task group were supported and being taken very seriously by the police force and the Crime Prevention Strategy Group. Councillor Clues contributed that task group members had been surprised by the findings of the investigation, in particular the scale and location of the industry. Additionally it was more than a moral issue as it extended into other areas such as people trafficking and organised crime.
The Executive noted that the Task Group’s recommendations included the lobbying of the London Mayor for a pan London prostitution strategy particularly to assist Olympic London boroughs, an article in the Brent Magazine on the issue and a seminar for members following the local elections. In discussion, attention was drawn to landlords’ responsibility to ensure that unlawful activity did not take in their properties and that they could be liable for prosecution if, once aware, they failed to act.
On behalf of the task group Councillor John thanked the police and health services, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executive’s (SOLACE), the POPPY Project and Make a Change Ipswich. She also thanked the other task group members, Policy and Regeneration Unit officers Jacqueline Casson and Andrew Davies and other contributors for their work.
RESOLVED:
(i) that the recommendations set out in the report be agreed;
(ii) that the task group members and policy be thanked for their work.