Steve Yemm
Main Page: Steve Yemm (Labour - Mansfield) Sex Trafficking: Scotland
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Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of sex trafficking in Scotland.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I am proud to support a Labour Government who are committed to halving violence against women and girls in a decade. However, I am always going to push for more action to be taken to end the commercial sexual exploitation that takes place every day on our streets and online.
I have raised the need for the Government and police to shut down websites that are advertising prostitution before. Why? Because there has long existed extensive evidence that online mega brothels are facilitating industrial-scale sex trafficking and sexual exploitation across the UK. Websites advertising prostitution, more accurately referred to as pimping websites, are commercial platforms dedicated solely or partly to advertising individuals for prostitution. In 2017, an inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group on commercial sexual exploitation exposed the crucial role they play in the business model of sex trafficking to meet men’s demands for prostitution.
Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)
I wonder if my hon. Friend shares my frustration that the Scottish Government voted down Ash Regan’s unbuyable Bill, which would have outlawed paying for sex and decriminalised victims of sexual exploitation in Scotland, despite the Scottish Government saying that they supported the Bill’s principle.
Tracy Gilbert
I pay tribute to Ash Regan for her work and for bringing forward the unbuyable Bill. Women are not to be bought and paid for, and buying sex is not consent. The Scottish Government’s reasons for voting down the Bill were poor, and in their debate in the Scottish Parliament in February, the Minister said they had
“instructed officials to start work immediately on the establishment of a commission so that options are available for the responsible minister in the next Government.”—[Scottish Parliament Official Report, 3 February 2026; c. 55.]
I urge that that work be undertaken as soon as the election has taken place.