The Law

First it is important to say that the purchase and selling of sexual services is not illegal in the United Kingdom. There though are many laws related to prostitution in the UK, and these laws vary a little when going North to Scotland. Much of the law is well discussed on the site SW5 - sex work, by sex workers for sex workers.. Please refer to that site for more details. I will though say the following. It is illegal to:

• Purchase sex from someone under 18
• Manage a brothel. That also means that where two women working together, (not necessarily at the same time) are working in a brothel. The person who arranges the flat can be deemed as running a brothel.
• Solicit. This normally means selling sex on the street. Likewise clients are not allowed to buy sex from some one selling on the street, i.e. kerb crawling
• Control for Gain. i.e. pimping. The criteria for control is very low, and does not mean physical force. Arranging bookings for someone can and has been considered control.
• A client buying, or promising to buy sex from a person who is coerced is liable to a fine. They don't have to know the person is coerced.

Other countries have different laws. Some countries like Sweden, Norway make it illegal to buy sex, while selling it is legal. The majority of countries make the selling and purchase of sex illegal, most of the US , East Europe, Asia, Middle East, Russia and Africa. Prostitution is legal in the majority of South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe. The legal countries though have a varying stance of legality. Lets though say, where prostitution is illegal, it still flourishes.

Unbiased help

New to escorting, thinking about escorting, old hand at escorting, but want some advice, then there are many forums to go to and ask. First though I would like to suggest two of my favourite sites.

SAAFE - Support And Advice For Escorts This site is a gold mine of good advice for those working as escorts. Links to the Law, advice on those to avoid, there are some many out there trying to take your money. Advice on where to go for health checks. Where to advertise, and who to avoid. There is also a forum where escorts ask each other for help, and warn each other of scams and ugly mugs. The site is run by escorts for escorts.

Escort Buddies provides a service where you can talk with an escort. It is a buddy system where new escorts are paired with experienced escorts. Escort Buddies is run by Penny who feels she wants to give something back to the sex work industry through her experience. Escort Buddies is there for the newbie, but can only run successfully when experienced escorts help. So they are always looking for new and old

Taxation

Don't believe that sex work is tax free. Like all cash in hand jobs, the tax man is on the look out for you. Earning large amounts of cash is not easy to get away with, as soon as it enters the banking system or is used to buy large ticket items, the tax man starts to take notice. So if you start to earn, you should be paying tax. Like all businesses there are expenses you can claim to offset these earnings. That is where accountants can come in and help.

Campaign for Sex Worker Rights

Escorts should seriously consider giving some of their time to voicing their desire to have the choice to work as sex workers, and to getting the law changed to make it safer to work.

There are groups with large funds, often millions donated by Government departments who have the aim of stopping prostitution. These groups come together with ill founded claims and persuade Government Ministers of the need to criminalise the client. In so doing, driving sex work further into the dangerous mirky back streets. The present law is dangerous to sex workers, in that it basically criminalises any safe working practices.

Sex workers must band together, forget their differences, form, or join existing campaign groups and fight those intent on criminalising sex work, and pushing back the barriers to safe working practices. This involvement might be providing funds, writing to MPS, to the papers, giving interviews, attending demos. There is something all of us can do no matter how discrete we have to be. There are several groups.

• International Union of Sex Workers a campaign group affiliated with the GMB.
• English Collective of Prostitutes
• x:talk – free English classes for migrant sex workers
• London Sex Worker Open University Our aim is to empower our community through workshops, debates, actions and art projects as well as fighting against our criminalisation
• Scottish Prostitutes Education Project