Challenge 'Pro Pimp' Police Policy

Aim

Despite legal action, new Police guidance on 'Sex Work' still reads like it was written by Pimps

In 2023, Not Buying It launched legal action against the National Police Chiefs' Counsel (NPCC) over its appalling 'Sex Work' guidance - which informs policing across England and Wales. We argued that it flagrantly breached equality law. Frankly, it read like it had been written by pimps.

The Council agreed to mediation and then to re-consult on the policy and revise it accordingly. Countless survivors and their allies responded to the consultation. Such groups and individuals represent the 90% in the sex trade who desperately seek to escape.

Shockingly the 'new' policy, published in Spring 2025, appears no different from the first in any meaningful way.

Thank you to all who responded to the consultation. We are sorry you were ignored.

We are now considering next steps.

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• The Guidance is based purely on the views of those who advocate for the decriminalisation of pimps. The voices of the 90% who seek to escape the industry and their allies are wholly ignored
  
  
• It views online pimping sites as 'key partners' rather than suspected participants in criminal exploitation.
  
  
• It barely mentions exiting and cautions services not to either - but this is the urgent need of 90% of those in the sex trade.
  
  
• The Guidance ties itself up in knots in its highly confused and contradictory understanding as ‘sex work’ as somehow entirely different from sexual exploitation.
   
• It refers only to (often very poor quality and clearly biased) research and information from academics and others who crusade for pimp decriminalisation, ignoring the vast wealth of evidence countering this.
  
  
• It calls for officers to liaison officers to be trained by and closely with 'experts' (this will be 'sex work' groups - who advocate for the decriminalisation of pimps)
  
  
• The NPCC have never provided any evidence that it complied with equality law or has even assessed the likely impact on women and girls.
  
  
• The NPCC oversees policing throughout England and Wales. Their guidance not only directs how police deal with the sex industries there but heavily influences police and other services and decision makers across the whole of the UK.
  
  
• This guidance directly fetters Government attempts to 'halve violence against women and girls within a decade'

Funding method

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