Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when the consultation on sex for rent will be launched; and whether stakeholders and relevant organisations will be invited to take part.

The Government is clear that exploitation through ‘sex for rent’ has no place in our society.

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, there are two existing offences which can be used to prosecute this practice. In 2019, the CPS amended their guidance on ‘Prostitution and Exploitation of Prostitution’ to include specific reference to the potential availability of charges for offences under sections 52 and 53 of the 2003 Act when there is evidence to support the existence of ‘sex for rent’ arrangements. Both offences carry a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.

In January 2021, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised the first charge for ‘sex for rent’ allegations under Section 52. The individual against whom these allegations were made pleaded guilty to two counts of inciting prostitution for gain earlier this year.

These offences have also been included in Schedule 7 of the Online Safety Bill, which reflects the most serious and prevalent illegal content online. This will mean that services will be under a duty to proactively search for, remove and limit people’s exposure to this content, while also protecting users’ freedom of expression.

We are committed to improving the protection of vulnerable people from exploitation. In the cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, which was published in July 2021, we committed to working with partners inside and outside of Government on the issue of sex-for-rent.

We have also committed to launching a public consultation on the issue of sex-for-rent to hear as wide a range of views as possible on the nature of sex-for-rent; the existing response and what more could be done to prevent exploitation and protect victims. We are working to launch this consultation soon.