1893 - 1996
1893
The Government sets up a committee to investigate the findings of Dr Bushell and Mrs Andrews.
1895
The Cantonment Act is amended to prohibit the registration and examination of prostitutues.
30 December 1906
Josephine Butler dies.
UK Timeline
1898
An amendment to the Vagrancy Act makes it an offence to 'live from the earnings of prostitution'.
1905
The Aliens Act introduces the first legal restrictions on immigration and includes provision for the repatriation of known foreign prostitutes.
1912
The Criminal Law Amendment (White Slave Traffic) Act is passed, strengthening the law against brothel keeping. Constables can arrest anyone suspected of procuring a girl under 21 to be ‘a common prostitute’ without a warrant. Those found guilty can be sentenced to be whipped.
Leading suffragist Millicent Garrett Fawcett appeals for the Bill to be passed.
1915
The Ladies’ National Association and its male counterpart merge to form the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (AMSH).
1923
The AMSH draft a Public Places (Order) Bill, aiming to replace all legal references to the ‘common prostitute’ with laws applying to ‘any person’: it is never enacted.
1928
A Street Offences Committee is appointed to examine the laws on solicitation and advises that it should apply to prostitutes and clients equally.
1942
Laws similar to the CD Acts are reintroduced on the return of war. Anyone alleged by two or more people to have infected them with VD can be forcibly examined and treated, fined and imprisoned if they refuse.
1950s
Convictions for soliciting increase by five times in the 1950s. Stepney was a well-known area and local residents demand action.
1956
The Sexual Offences Act is passed, consolidating much previous prostitution law. Soliciting for an immoral purpose (by men and women), keeping a brothel, knowingly living off the earnings of prostitution, causing the prostitution of women, and causing or encouraging the prostitution of a girl are all defined as sexual offences.
1957
The Wolfenden Report recommends measures to limit street prostitution and to decriminalise homosexual acts between men. It argues for the retention of ‘common prostitute’, increased penalties for soliciting, and removing the need to prove annoyance.
1959
The AMSH leads a deputation of women’s organisations to meet the Home Secretary arguing penalties proposed in the Wolfenden Report are excessive, and the unjustness of prostitution laws will persist. The Street Offences Act enacts the key recommendations of the Wolfenden Report. Prostitution moves off the street, and is increasingly commercialised.
1962
The Association for Moral and Social Hygiene is renamed the Josephine Butler Society.
1967
Three Private Members bills over two years aim to remove references in law to a ‘common prostitute’ are presented in the House of Lords. None receive a second reading.
1975
Inspired by a ‘Prostitutes’ Strike’ in France, prostitutes’ organisations including the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) form in the UK, demanding the end to criminalisation. ECP occupy the Holy Cross Church, Kings Cross in 1982 in protest against ‘police illegality and racism’.
1978
A debate is held in Westminster Central Hall. The meeting votes for the abolition of all laws relating to prostitution. Maureen Colquhoun, the country’s first openly lesbian MP, promises to introduce a ten-minute rule bill. It falls the following year when a general election is called.
1980s
Press reports suggest that Thatcherite economics are increasing the numbers of women selling sex. Stories of women coming south to earn money for Christmas presents are commonplace.
1983
The Criminal Justice Act replaces imprisonment for soliciting with fines. Women are still going to prison – but for non-payment fines.
1985
Janet Fookes’ Sexual Offences Bill is passed, creating a new offence of ‘persistent’ kerb crawling. Feminists are divided on the law, and prostitutes’ rights organisations claim it will endanger women.
1987
Scapegoating of prostitutes in relation to HIV/AIDS has another side, as funds enable to development of outreach projects and drop-in centres promoting harm-reduction. ScotPep, one of the earliest harm reduction projects, is founded in Edinburgh in 1989 as a peer led education programme to address safe sex, drug use and personal safety.
1989
After being pursued by the Inland Revenue, but unable to register her brothel as a company, Lindi St Clair founds the Corrective Party. She advocates small collectives of four women and a madam, each paying a bond to the government and undergoing regular health checks.
1994
A ‘vigilante patrol’ of local residents in Balsall Heath, Birmingham sit in armchairs on street corners holding six-foot placards with slogans like ‘Kerb-crawlers: the wife will find out’. There are also reports of women being threatened.
1995
The English Collective of Prostitutes successfully supports the first private prosecution for rape in England and Wales.
1996
Edinburgh Council begins to operate an unoffical 'tolerance zone' for street prostitution, citing the support of local women's groups and opportunities for harm reduction inputs. Councillors in Middlesborough work with police to set up a similar zone two years later.
Over 4000 people from all over the world attend the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Women's Citizenship in Brighton, one day of which explores prostitution and pornography as violence against women.
Irence Ivison, whose daughter Fiona was murdered by a punter, founds the Coalition for the Removal of Pimps (CROP).
