The first all-Wales network to help sex workers access vital services has been set up. And it could help safeguard sex workers as it will allow information about violent offenders to easily be shared across Wales.

Vital research will also be carried out to determine how many people are working in the sex industry in Wales.

Pete Clark, national director of the Terrence Higgins Trust in Wales, said: We're really in a catch-22 situation at the moment – we know that something is going on but we don't have the evidence to prove it.

Dr Tracey Sagar, a lecturer in criminology and social policy at Swansea University, said: This is about getting people to open their minds about whether all women are deserving of services, whether all human beings are deserving or services, regardless of the choices they make. Sagar and not-for-profit company Gibran UK have won a £440,000 Big Lottery grant, which will fund a four-year research project to determine how many people are working in the sex industry. This research will help inform the network's work.

Dr Sagar said: There has been a massive expansion of the sex market – we're seeing students try lap dancing as a way of paying their way through university. We may think it is immoral but girls are making conscience decisions to do that rather than finish university £30,000 in debt.

Clark said: The majority of women working on the streets are drug dependent but some will work opportunistically and some seasonally – some women from the valleys will work on Cardiff's streets in December to pay for their children's Christmas presents. There is also a flourishing massage parlour and private apartment scene and underneath that there is an individual scene where people advertise themselves on websites – on one website alone there were 351 women advertising their services.

And Dr Sagar added: For every sex worker who is selling sex, someone is buying it. We could sit in a bubble and say it is not our fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles or cousins. But, like it or not, someone is buying it.

Lap dancing clubs could use the Human Rights Act to oppose legislation allowing councils greater freedom to turn down lap-dancing licence applications, venue owners say.

The Policing and Crime Act forces existing lap-dancing clubs to apply for new licences and allows councils to close venues for moralistic reasons.

Chris Knight, president of the Lap-Dancing Association (LDA), said clubs could take their appeals to the European Court of Justice. If local authorities don't give us new licences, they are effectively taking away our right to property and to do business, as outlined in the Human Rights Act, and we will consider taking it as far as we have to in the courts, he said.

Local councils are likely to vigorously defend the legislation. Richard Kemp, vice-chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), said: If they want a legal showdown, then we're going to test the depths of their pockets, because we're certainly going to test ours.

Club owners argue that the legislation could infringe their right to property protection. The issue involves article 8 of the Human Rights Act which concerns the right to protection of private property, and activities pursuant to that property, said licensing lawyer Richard Arnot. If an existing lap-dancing licence is your property, then you have the right to run a lap-dancing club, and the new legislation is arguably an infringement of that right.

Julian Skeens, head of licensing law at Jeffrey Green Russell and the LDA's solicitor, said appeal cases were likely to take a long time, and clubs could remain in business for some time.

The situation has angered nutter groups that pushed for the new law. Anna van Heeswijk, campaigns co-ordinator of Object, said: Human rights legislation exists to safeguard against discrimination and to promote principles of local democracy, not to protect the rights of club owners to make a profit.

A Peterborough priest has called on religious leaders to join a campaign to reverse a decision to allow a club near his church to run lap-dancing nights.

Father David Jennings, of St Peter and All Souls Roman Catholic Church, has written to religious leaders of all faiths in the city asking them to support his campaign over Pulse 8 nightclub, in Geneva Street, which recently began holding pole dancing nights.

In the letter Father David said:

We have been shocked that no attempt was made by the authorities to consult the residents of Geneva Street, nor the Catholic Church which residents next door but one to the night club.

This inappropriate decision fails to take into account the views of the 1,800 who attend mass each week.

As faith leaders within the city, I know you would not appreciate such an establishment being sited next door to your place of worship.

The owners of Calderdale's only lap-dancing club will have to pay an extra £2,300 a year if councillors adopt new licensing rules.

La Salsa in Silver Street, Halifax, was closed by the police for a month as part of a probe into people trafficking and money laundering. It reopened last week.

Calderdale Council Licensing Committee will be asked to adopt new powers under the 2009 Policing and Crime Act for the licensing of premises for sexual entertainment, which come into effect in April.

The draft conditions for such venues include a requirement for perfor- mers to wear a non-transparent g-string and for them to remain at least 12 inches from customers who must be seated at all times. The licensee is also prohibited from displaying any potentially offensive material outside the premises suggesting erotic dancing takes place inside.

Ann Wardle, the council's head of customer services and communications, said: However, existing operators who do not apply or who are not granted a sex establishment licence may continue to provide lap dancing for a year.

Lapdancing sessions have started at a city centre bar in Oxford – despite continued protests from  neighbouring church nutters.

Al Thompson, the manager of Thirst Lodge, said lapdancing was being staged at the club, in Pennyfarthing Place, off St Ebbe's, from Monday to Saturday, between 9pm and 3am.

There are no sessions on Sunday, and Mr Thompson said this was a deliberate concession to the neighbouring St Ebbe's Church, which has led protests against the club's application to stage lapdancing events.

The city council's licensing committee approved the application in December, but the church has appealed against the decision and an initial hearing is expected to take place before Oxford magistrates next month.

Thompson said: We're now running the venue as a gentleman's club called The Lodge, that has poledancing and lapdancing. About 20 to 25 per cent of our clientele are women. There's pole dancing on the ground floor and private dancers in the basement, which cost £20 each.

Punch Taverns wanted to reopen the historic Brewery Tap pub in Reading's town centre as a gentleman's club.

But its proposal was thrown out by Reading's licensing committee.

More than 40 locals voiced concerns about the potential noise from drunken behaviour. Business owners in Castle Street claimed they were worried about the safety of staff walking home late at night.

Abbey ward councillor Bet Tickner said: The feeling was this was unwelcome. The biggest worries surrounded noise from the premises as it is not correctly soundproofed. Business owners were not happy either because of staff working late. They didn't want a place where, after drinking, people in the town centre could go in and possibly get sexually aroused. Then you have women leaving the office and meeting people they don't want to.

Fellow ward councillor Tony Page agreed: This was a first class result. Many people were concerned about the activities going on inside. This is not the place for this sort of thing, certainly not on a 24-hour basis.

Punch's application included the provision of 24-hour drinking, live and recorded music, and new dance facilities including striptease, table dancing and pole dancing.

Punch spokeswoman Kat Auckland said: As previously highlighted this was a speculative application and we are continuing to explore other options for the site.

Anna Arrowsmith, also known as Anna Span, is the new Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham in Kent.

She is also the auteur of hundreds of female-friendly porn films. Her neighbours in Tunbridge Wells may or may not be disgusted to learn that some of these, including Be My Toyboy, were shot in the front room.

Last year she won a battle with the British Board of Film Classification to be allowed to show a scene of female ejaculation.

She said that campaign was idealistic. It was about saying to the censors that you can't tell the women of this country what their bodies can or cannot do.

How seriously will the voters take Ms Arrowsmith, 38, on the election trail? She wants to be respected for her business and campaigning record but knows that her career will present a problem for some. There will be some people who will never like porn, she says. People approach sex in different ways. For some people it is only an emotional act. For others it is a variety of different acts. Some people will never accept that. They are probably the same people who never had a one-night stand. There will be some people who are conservative and very anti-porn. I think on the whole these days people are far more liberal.

What about the Liberals? Aren't some of them going to be affronted by a pornographer in their midst? I don't think so. On the whole they are a sexually liberated bunch.

Fed up with seeing porn films that focused on women pleasuring men she has carved a niche making films in which a third of shots show the woman, a third the man and a third the couple together. She says that the films she makes are humorous and that there is no airbrushing. Nearly half her customers are women, she says: Women definitely need this. She laughs at the idea that for all her talk of being a feminist she is really in pornography for the money. For years she made very little. Now, I do OK — nice house in Tunbridge Wells. No way am I the millionaire I thought I would be.

In her Tory-Labour marginal a Lib Dem victory is a long shot, but she is determined to become an MP eventually.

The owner of a lap dancing club who was arrested following a raid on his Huddersfield nightspot has now been stripped of his licence.

Kirklees Council's licensing committee has revoked the premises licence for La Salsa following concerns raised by police.

Sgt John McFadzean, of Huddersfield South Neighbourhood Policing Team, was part of the raid. He said: I'm pleased the council has endorsed the actions of the police.

The Beast Market club was raided last month after undercover special constables were allegedly offered sexual favours by dancers.

They had been sent to investigate allegations some of the girls working there were performing naked and breaking the rules that ban physical contact with customers.

While police were in the club, they also discovered a 16-year-old Romanian girl working as a dancer.

London mayor Boris Johnson has urged shoppers to challenge newsagents who allow their windows to become advertising boards for prostitutes.

Johnson said people did not realise calling cards offering massage services were often directly linked to organised crime and violence.

Speaking on International Women's Day at London Bridge, he said members of the public should play their part: I think this is one of those areas where the public can have a huge influence.

Launching his strategy for tackling violence against women, Johnson said he wanted more work to be done to reduce the demand for prostitutes. He said this could be achieved through the better use of existing laws and licensing regulations, publicity campaigns and education for school pupils.

But Sarah Walker from the International Prostitutes Collective criticised the mayor's plans, saying: It's outrageous that Boris Johnson is using International Woman's Day to attack prostitutes. Banning women from putting cards in windows will drive them out of premises on to the streets, which is 10 times worse. Whatever policies are put place, we have to prioritise woman's safety.

Senior Labour figures in Scotland were shocked last week to learn that the city council leader had a drug problem and had been warned by police that he was in danger of being blackmailed by suppliers.

Even politicians who considered themselves to be close friends of Purcell said that they had no idea about his problems.

Purcell resigned as a councillor on Friday, spelling the end of his high-flying political career, as speculation about the extent of his problems continued to mount. He had hoped that by quitting as leader earlier in the week he could take time out to recover and make a comeback in several months. However, as revelations continued to emerge about his lifestyle that strategy had to be abandoned.

It emerged yesterday that officers from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforecement Agency visited him at his office in the city chambers last May to warn that he could be open to blackmail. The agency told him that it was aware of a dealer claiming to have evidence of drug use which could end his career.

Fellow moralist, Jim Coleman, will remain the acting leader of Scotland's biggest local authority until an annual general meeting is held in May.

Call to Review Purcell's Decisions

Based on article from thescotsman.scotsman.com

Glasgow City Council have refused to review any decisions made by its former leader Steven Purcell following revelations about drugs abuse.

Calls were made for decisions at the council to be looked at again. The demands by the GMB union and SNP opponents came just after the former council leader quit as a councillor and reportedly fled to Australia to recuperate.

Comment: Perhaps to time to review Glasgow Council's Moralising campaigns

Perhaps campaigns such as End Prostitution Now

From their website www.endprostitutionnow.org

End Prostitution Now is a campaign led by Glasgow City Council which aims to raise awareness of the harm caused through prostitution and put the focus on the buyers of sex - the DEMAND - who have in the past been invisible from public debate.

But Glasgow Council seem to be denying that they are running it.

There are no references to this campaign in the most recent annual Company report of the Glasgow Community and Safety Services Limited Company. And even stranger when Glasgow City Council were approached under the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland 2002)

The Council is treating your request as a request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

On inspecting our records, it would appear that Glasgow City Council does not hold the information which you have requested. Neither does anyone else hold it on our behalf. Accordingly we are unable to comply with your request.

I can confirm that Glasgow City Council does not run political campaigns.

Plans to run lap-dancing nights at an Oxford bar have received backing from readers on the Oxford Mail's website oxfordmail.co.uk.

Members of St Ebbe's Church are leading the fight against the application by neighbours Thirst Lodge. However, most commentators on our website believe the bar should be allowed to have lapdancers.

Pierre My said: Reading the story there are all the usual ridiculous unsubstantiated reasons why they don't want it. I was just waiting for somebody to scream 'Think of the children'.

Nightshift said: Next to St Ebbe's Church is a supermarket. Ironically, the beers, wines and spirits section is the closest to the church building. It sells alcohol at vastly reduced prices and greater volume than The Lodge. Of the two businesses closest to the church, which is the most likely to increase cases of domestic violence, violence against women, unwanted pregnancy, parents buying alcohol for children and admissions to A&E departments? In fact how many strip club-related admissions are there to A&E departments in Oxford?

LadyPenelope agreed: I don't see the problem with a lapdancing club. No one is forcing those girls to dance. It's just people trying to make a living paid by people who are somewhat sad enough to cough up cash for that sort of thing.

Only one reader posted a comment opposing the lap dancing.

Any One said: I'm sure you know, if you think about it, that how some young women end up in jobs such as lapdancing does indeed involve covert force. There are usually many factors that are not always immediately obvious, like men controlling these young women.

An estimated two hundred people gathered in Bonn Square to protest against lap dancing at Thirst Lodge.

Members of St. Ebbe's Church, local residents, students and leaders of the local Muslim community came together to protest against the establishment of Thirst Lodge as a sex encounter venue.

Kat Wall, OUSU's Women's Officer, told Cherwell, We've come together with various different groups from across the community to say that we don't want lap dancing to take place here. The main reason for this protest is, basically, we're very concerned about the harms that will be put on many members of the community.

Oxford City Council leader, Bob Price, urged the public to sign a petition against the Lodge's plans to host lap dancing. He said, We're very opposed to this application because it runs entirely counter to our image of what the city centre should be about, and as many speakers this afternoon have said, it would certainly raise the possibility of more crime and violence and attacks on women in this area.

An online petition campaigning against lap dancing at Thirst Lodge on the grounds of the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance has over 1000 signatures.

A lap-dancing club has been barred from opening off Holborn Circus because there are already too many in the area.

Plans to open a new 300-capacity gentleman's club called Blue Diamond with a 4.30am late licence have been thrown out.

Almost 100 irate nutters and businesses had objected to the plans claiming it would debase the reputation of Hatton Garden.

Numerous other lap-dancing and strip joints operate within a 500-metre radius - including neighbouring club Secrets as well as The Griffin, in Clerkenwell Road, and the Chatterbox and Venus nightspots in Farringdon Road.

Blue Diamond, off Holborn Circus, is the latest venture from For Your Eyes Only (FYEO), which opened Europe's biggest lap dancing venue in City Road in 2008.

It would have featured 30 private booths with customers paying £20 a time to have a fully naked female dancer gyrate for their pleasure for three minutes.

FYEO insists it operates a strict code of conduct that bans full body contact between customers and dancers and ensures private booths being are not fully curtained-off.

But Camden Council threw out the plans citing the cumulative effect of yet strip club opening and its impact on the quality of life of residents with nearby schools and churches.

The truth is that what actually happens during moralistic periods is virtually the same as what goes on in more liberal times; what differs is the lack of openness about people's behaviour and the hidden nature of any harmful consequences. In moralistic periods, sin, crime and vice get pushed so far under the carpet that moralisers, believing (rather as children do) that what they cannot see does not exist, feel great self-satisfaction. The honesty of more liberal times, and the fact that everyone can then see harm when it occurs, affronts the moralisers; and they hasten to force it back into darkness.

This is exactly what is happening now. The most obvious example is the profoundly mistaken proposal to further criminalise the sex trade in Scotland, by making the purchase of sexual services a crime. Already in England it is a crime for anyone to buy the services of a person trafficked into sex work, whether or not the client knows that the individual is a victim of coercion.

...Read the full article

Advertisements for massage parlours and escort agencies are to be banned in the next government assault on the sex industry. 

Ministers plan to disrupt the sex industry by banning newspaper advertisements for prostitutes and brothels in a new law put forward in Labour's election manifesto. Failure to comply with the law could carry a £10,000 fine.

The clampdown is being led by Vera Baird, the solicitor-general, and Harriet Harman, the equality minister.

They are concerned that a request to remove the adverts has had only partial success. Although The Newspaper Society succeeded in persuading some newspaper groups to stop carrying them, ministers are concerned that many others have failed to do so.

The Crown Prosecution Service has already studied a similar law in Ireland and concluded that it would work in the UK.

The new law would also inform publishers which kind of ads will be banned by defining, for example, the difference between a massage parlour which is actually a brothel and spas offering therapeutic massages.

Sex phone lines, carried in many tabloid newspapers, would not be caught by the law unless they are a front for arranging prostitution.

It would also make it a criminal offence to print or distribute telephone-box cards advertising prostitutes. Under the current law, it is an offence only to be caught in the act of posting such a card.

Baird said: It is now appropriate to move against people who make money from advertising prostitutes. The Newspaper Society tightened its guidance on taking such ads but there is still a market that we now have to look to legislation to disrupt.

The nightclub boss Peter Stringfellow has warned that he would appeal under human rights laws if he was forced to close his lapdancing clubs under new government regulations.

Hundreds of lap-dancing clubs will have to seek new licences under powers that are expected to force some premises to close. The new licensing regime will start on April 6, when clubs will be called sexual entertainment venues. They will all have to apply for a fresh licence.

Local councils in England and Wales will be able to ban clubs from opening near schools or other buildings in quiet or busy neighbourhoods. The public will be given the right to oppose an application to open a club on the basis that the premises are inappropriate.

Stringfellow and the Lap Dancing Association are threatening to go to the European Court of Human Rights if any club given specific permission to conduct lap dancing loses its licence. They claim that loss of the licence breaches human rights because it deprives them of their possession.

Stringfellow said that the regulations had been brought forward because Jacqui Smith, the former Home Secretary, and Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, were entranced by the radical feminist organisation known as the Fawcett Society.

Britain wants to prosecute YOU!

An attempt to prosecute a man for asking a woman for sex in a Nottingham red light district was slammed as reprehensible by a High Court Judge

The case, from July 2008, had been thrown out by magistrates previously, but prosecutors tried to reopen it.

A police sting operation took place after complaints from Mapperley residents about the impact of prostitution in the area. A police officer posed as Sarah, a prostitute, and agreed a price for sex with the man after he approached her.

The man was arrested but magistrates cleared him of any offence, ruling he had done nothing wrong.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions tried to re-open the case in the High Court.

However, Lord Justice Elias said the attempt was quite hopeless and upheld the ruling a single incident of asking a woman for sex in a known red light district could not amount to a nuisance.

He added a single, otherwise lawful, act does not become a criminal offence just because other people are carrying out similar, otherwise lawful, activity in the same area.

Observing prosecuting authorities were using wholly artificial concepts to criminalise lawful conduct which they considered to be reprehensible, Lord Justice Elias urged all courts to have no truck with it.

The Brewery Tap in Castle Street, Reading may be transformed from a traditional pub after owner Punch Taverns submitted plans to vary its premises licence to allow 24-hour drinking as well as live and recorded music. The application also details new dance facilities to include striptease, table dancing, pole dancing, lap dancing and other similar styled entertainment of an adult theme.

But local residents predictably said they cannot bear the thought of such a club on their doorstep. Neighbour Terry Parsons said: We don't want it. It was bad enough as a pub. They couldn't keep the noise down when it closed at midnight, so we are concerned this would make it even worse. It's not even the right location – not somewhere you expect to find a strip of bars. Where we live the parking area is quite small. We have people making noise at four, five o'clock in the morning and it echoes through the courtyard.

Punch spokeswoman Jo Navin said: It is always our priority that our sites are open and trading and serving the community around them. The Brewery Tap has been closed for a number of months and we are exploring options around the future of the site. One option is a speculative application to vary the premises license to include extended drinking hours and the opportunity for the site to operate as a lap dancing venue.

Reverend Edward Malcolm, from St Mary's Church in Castle Street, opposite the pub, said: It doesn't seem at all appropriate. Apart from the unsavouriness of that form of activity, it is in a residential area. There are already enough drinking establishments with long licences in Reading. We don't need another one. There seems to be no justification for it. I wonder if they are after something less than a 24-hour lapdancing club and putting in an extreme case, so they get knocked back on some things but end up with 24-hour drinking.

Deputy leader of Reading Borough Council Tony Page, who is ward councillor for the area, urged people living near the Brewery Tap to take part in the consultation: Without passing any moral judgements...[BUT]...I have very grave reservations about 24-hour drinking in an establishment in a residential area on the people that live close to the Brewery Tap. He emphasised his objections were not moral since he used to run a club in Reading – the Majestic in Caversham Road – in the 1980s which had both male and female strippers.

Lap dancers will not be disrobing at a pub in West Drayton, much to the delight of the area's MP.

The De Burgh Arms had asked for permission to hold lap dancing and striptease evenings in a separate building within their premises, a move hotly opposed by Uxbridge MP John Randall (Con). He said: I am very pleased with the result. I just do not think it is the right location for that sort of establishment. I'm delighted.

At a licensing meeting at Hillingdon Civic Centre last Tuesday, the committee ruled against permitting the new venture at the pub in Station Road.

The De Burgh Arms is next to the town's busy station, and many residents supposedly feared the lap dancing pub would be the first thing people coming to West Drayton would see.

Councillors said the possibility of the venue adding to anti-social behaviour and crime in the area was another reason to turn it down.

Comment: Nimby bandwagon

9th February 2010. Thanks to Alan

Interesting to see my former local get a mention! I used to drink in the De Burgh Arms, which used to be the best pub in West Drayton by a mile. It became less pleasant a few years ago, and the lap dance proposal might be an attempt to revive it. Sorry to see the normally sensible John Randall jump on the nimby bandwagon.

Strp pubs are by no means unknown in the area: there are a couple in Hayes, and another boozer just on the other side of the railway used to run regular strip nights a few years back

Nutters of an Oxford church have resurrected protests against an Oxford bar's plans to run lap-dancing sessions.

In January last year, Greene King applied for a licence to run lap dancing and pole dancing at Thirst Lodge, off St Ebbe's Street, but withdrew its application after staff at St Ebbe's Church complained.

But in December, the company renewed its application and the city council granted permission.

Now the church has appealed, and magistrates will be asked to reconsider the proposal.

On Saturday, church members gave out flyers outside the bar, in Pennyfarthing Place, and asked shoppers to sign a petition.

The Rev Vaughan Roberts, Rector of St Ebbe's Church, said: We are concerned because we understand women can feel intimidated and experience harassment from men who are leaving lap-dancing clubs.

Nutters of the Oxford University Students Union have also had a whinge about Thirst Lodge. See also article from cherwell.org

A strip club has been given the go-ahead to open in Portsmouth's city centre. For Your Eyes Only will take over the former Mint Casino in Guildhall Walk.

Portsmouth City Council granted the adult entertainment venue a license despite objections from police.

Licensing officer PC Mike O'Malley claimed the club, which is set to open until 5am six days a week and until 4am on Sundays, would have a negative impact on the already notorious Guildhall area. He said another late-night venue would not help police prevent crime and disorder.

He told the council: The police are strongly opposed to this application and feel that it should not be granted.

But councillors said they could find no real reason to refuse it.

Cllr Les Stevens, chairman of the licensing committee, said: The sexual aspect is not a licensing concern - that is not a reason to turn down a licence. We had to make a decision based on the opening hours and that sort of thing. The casino used to be open until 6am, so this will close earlier than that. And it's not going to be the sort of place drunk people can just turn up - it costs £10 to even get it and drinks are going to be so expensive - I think a small bottle of beer is going to be about £4 right up to a bottle of champagne for £5,000, so groups of drunk lads aren't going to be able to afford to go in.

Cllr Stevens, Lib Dem, added: There is no evidence that this sort of place causes sexual crimes to go up at all. We have never had any complaints about the two that are already open.

You will have seen the advertisements in the back of some newspapers: New young models. Open 24 hours. Come and relax and have a professional massage.

If Vera Baird, the UK Solicitor General has her way such ads will soon be a thing of the past. Baird, along with Fiona Mactaggart, Harriet Harman and other feminists in Westminster, is looking to the Republic of Ireland for inspiration on how to legislate against third-party profiteering from the sex industry – namely by newspapers. Ireland's legislation, in place since 1994, reads:

A person who publishes or causes to be published or distributes or causes to be distributed an advertisement which advertises a brothel or the services of a prostitute in the State or any premises or service in the State in terms, circumstances or manner which gives rise to the reasonable inference that the premises is a brothel or that the service is one of prostitution shall be guilty of an offence.

The legislation includes those advertising prostitution services in other ways, for example displaying notices or posters, circulating leaflets or cards (such as those in telephone boxes) or on radio, television, computer, telephone, fax or photography.

At Baird's instigation the Crown Prosecution Service here in the UK has taken a close look at the legislation and decided that it could be useful in prosecuting those directly involved in profiting from this abusive industry and could also reduce the numbers of men paying for sex.

If police can confirm that an ad being published or distributed is for a brothel the publisher is sent a warning of possible arrest and prosecution if the ad runs again. The penalty is a fine of up to £10,000.

Prostitution is seen as a market opportunity for organised gangs trafficking women into Scotland, a police body warned MSPs yesterday. The claim was made at a Scottish Parliament committee investigating the economic impact of human trafficking and migration.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) said people-smuggling generates large amounts of money for gangs and opportunistic criminals, particularly in the Strathclyde force area.

In a submission to Holyrood's equal opportunities committee, Acpos said: The existence of an illicit sex industry in Strathclyde and the rest of Scotland is seen as a market opportunity, and there is evidence that criminal gangs, involved in large-scale organised prostitution rings, traffic women into the UK.

Prostitution and escort services generate vast amounts of profit for the criminals, not to mention the harm to the individuals, who are exploited and require intensive support to reclaim their lives.

Politicians have called for dedicated government funds to tackle the problem before the Commonwealth Games comes to Glasgow in 2014. It was claimed last year that well-paid construction workers might increase demand for prostitution in the city.

The Scottish Government has said it is funding the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency to establish a new unit which will target human trafficking as well as other forms of organised crime.

Medway councillor Nick Brice is facing calls to resign after it emerged that he was cautioned for attempting to pick up a prostitute.

The Rochester South and Horsted ward representative was arrested looking for working girls on the streets of Rochester in November of last year. The councillor admitted the offence and received a conditional caution.

Medway Conservative Group immediately moved to expel Cllr Brice from the party, saying that all elected members should uphold the highest standards in public office and public life. Medway's Labour Group has also called for his resignation.

Party leader Paul Godwin said: When a person who holds public office breaks the law, they generally have the decency to resign. When they have been caught kerb crawling, any right minded person would do the decent thing. The local Tories were correct to throw Cllr Brice out, and I am amazed that he has not yet resigned. His position is completely untenable. If he doesn't attend any meetings for six months he automatically ceases to be a member, but if he does appear he will find himself in front of the standards committee.

Cllr Teresa Murray, of neighbouring Rochester East ward, added: I am sure everyone in Rochester, and in Medway as a whole, is disgusted by Nicholas Brice's actions.