Impact case study database

Law and Policy

National Government Policy: In 2016 Brooks-Gordon provided written evidence [Ai] to the Home Affairs Select Committee in their first ever inquiry into prostitution. This resulted in a Committee Report that drew significantly on Brooks-Gordon’s research evidence [Aii], and recommended further investigation of decriminalization models and their benefits. In its response to this report (2016), the government made recommendations towards decriminalization, in line with Brooks-Gordon’s proposals [Aiii]. A new inquiry into prostitution was launched in 2019 by the Women’s and Equality Select Committee. This inquiry cited the earlier Home Affairs Committee Report, and specifically data on the number of UK sex-workers by Brooks-Gordon in its terms of reference [Bi], and invited Brooks-Gordon to submit written expert evidence [Bii]. Brooks-Gordon also provided evidence from her ONS research on the number and economic impact of sex work to a parliamentary symposium on decriminalisation at the House of Commons (2015) that was organised by the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a national network campaigning for sex workers’ rights and safety [Ci]. This research also features prominently in the Facts about Sex Work published on the ECP website [Cii].

National Party Policy: Brooks-Gordon was invited in April 2018 by Fiona Bruce MP to lead a debate on Prostitution Law reform as part of the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Prostitution, Trafficking and the Law. This resulting commission report ( The Limits of Consent: Prostitution in the UK, July 2019 [D]) refers to Brooks-Gordon’s research and names her as a principle advocate of decriminalization. It recommends review and reform of police guidance, support for people wishing to exit from prostitution, and importantly the introduction of secondary legislation to prevent disclosure of historic soliciting convictions. In 2014, Brooks-Gordon chaired the Liberal Democrat Policy Working Group Towards Safer Sex Work, which developed detailed recommendations towards the decriminalization of sex work [Ei]. Further specific policy recommendations informed by Brooks-Gordon’s research ( A Rational Approach to Harm Reduction, 2017 [Eii]) were made into Liberal Democrat party policy in 2017. As a member of the party’s Federal Policy Committee, Brooks-Gordon was instrumental for the inclusion of the pledge to decriminalize sex work in the 2017 Liberal Democrat election manifesto – the first time that this goal was explicitly adopted by any major UK political party.

International Policy: In 2014, Brooks-Gordon’s provided expert evidence for letters of concern about a European Parliament (EP) resolution on sexual exploitation and prostitution. This resulted in a vote against the resolution, and in amendments that followed Brook-Gordon’s recommendations, based on her research emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between voluntary sex-work and forced prostitution. These amendments were tabled by Sophie in’t Veld MEP and were accepted by the EP, thereby changing how prostitution is defined and tackled across the EU. In 2019, Brooks-Gordon wrote a resolution ( Harm Reduction for Migrant and Vulnerable Sex Workers [Fi]) for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; representing 71 liberal European political parties), which proposes a European policy of reducing harm to migrant and sex workers through decriminalizing sex-work and strengthening laws to address coercion. This resolution was passed by ALDE in October 2019, which is significant because ALDE/Renew holds the balance of power in Europe, currently including six European Prime Ministers. Brooks-Gordon’s EU initiatives led her to discuss EU policy on transactional sex on national programmes, including BBC’s Newsnight, Women’s Hour and The Big Questions [Fii].

In 2019, Brooks-Gordon gave written and oral evidence [Gi, Gii] to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), for inclusion in the General Recommendations on trafficking, which had their first reading at the UN in July 2020 [Giii]. They included several of Brooks-Gordon’s specific recommendations on the provision of procedural and legal rights to trafficking victims (such as access to culturally appropriate medical and social services without fear of arrest or deportation, and rights to receive protection from further harm to avoid re-traumatisation through legal and administrative procedures).

Policing

Brooks-Gordon is senior academic advisor for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and member of the national expert advisory group on sex work. She was involved in developing the National Policing Sex Work Guidance (2015), an extension of guidelines from 2011 [Hi], which significantly referenced her research. In 2018 she supported the development of the NPCC’s new National Police Sex Work and Prostitution Guidance and was influential in redrafting these guidelines. This document was ratified in 2019. It provides direct guidance for approximately 10,000 officers involved operational policing in England and Wales, and is also relevant to a further 80,000 officers as well as to partners in health, charities and education who work with the police on matters related to sex work.

Brooks-Gordon’s research has also contributed to changes in policing at the local level. As a board member of the Sex Work Research Hub (SWRH), she provided research evidence to West Yorkshire Police and Leeds City Council in support of a managed safety area for sex workers in the Holbeck area of Leeds, which was made permanent in 2016. When an enquiry was launched by the Council following local complaints, Brooks-Gordon and the SWRH submitted a briefing paper which provided an evidence-based rationale for the continuation of this managed area [Ii]. According to a recent survey by Basis Yorkshire [Iii], the managed zone has significantly improved the willingness of sex workers to report provide personal details of a crime against them to the police (from 7% to over 50% since 2017), thus facilitating prosecution of these crimes.