page_title: Prostitution in the United Kingdom
hierarchical_section_title: Prostitution in the United Kingdom
caption_attribution_description: English: Brewer Street
context_page_description: In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex as part of an exchange of sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.
  Though laws regulating sex work exist, they are not always strictly enforced, with some reports of police forces turning a blind eye to brothels. Many brothels in cities such as Manchester, London and Cardiff operate under the moniker of "massage parlours".
  Although the age of consent is 16 throughout the United Kingdom, it is illegal to buy sex from a person younger that is reasonably believed to be under 18. In England and Wales, it is an offence to pay for sex with a sex worker who has been "subjected to force", constituting a strict liability offence - wherein the client of a sex worker can be prosecuted for the offence, even in the absence of fault or criminal intent to force a sex worker to provide sexual services for them.
context_section_description: In Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), the act of engaging in sex as part of an exchange of sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015. 
  Though laws regulating sex work exist, they are not always strictly enforced, with some reports of police forces turning a blind eye to brothels. Many brothels in cities such as Manchester, London and Cardiff operate under the moniker of "massage parlours".
  Although the age of consent is 16 throughout the United Kingdom, it is illegal to buy sex from a person younger that is reasonably believed to be under 18.  In England and Wales, it is an offence to pay for sex with a sex worker who has been "subjected to force", constituting a strict liability offence - wherein the client of a sex worker can be prosecuted for the offence, even in the absence of fault or criminal intent to force a sex worker to provide sexual services for them.
caption: A doorway advertising "Models" in Brewer Street, Soho, London, an example of a Soho walk-up.
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