Poppy Proeject

Brothels in London are offering sex for as little as £15, an anti-prostitution campaign report says.

Some are charging just £10 extra for unprotected intercourse. The report also found that 85% of brothels in the capital operate in residential areas.

The report has been compiled by the Poppy Project, which campaigns against prostitution. Campaigners posing as potential punters telephoned 921 brothels that had advertised in local newspapers.

They also found 77 different ethnicities of women were selling sex, many from eastern Europe and south-east Asia.

The average age of the women was 21, but several places offered very very young girls" but did not admit to having underage girls available, the report said.

According to the Poppy Project, the average price for full sex was about £62.

Co-author Helen Atkins said: This research shows the disturbing prevalence of the sex industry in every corner of London - fuelled by the demand for prostitution services.

Multi-media misrepresentations of commercial sex as a glamorous, easy and fun career choice for girls and women further contribute to the ubiquity of London's brothel industry.

However, for most women involved in prostitution, the reality is a cycle of violence and coercion, perpetuated by poverty and inequality.

Billie Piper's TV portrayal of a happy hooker has been branded obscene by an anti-prostitution campaign group.

The POPPY Project singled out Billie, star of ITV2's Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, for criticism.

Chief executive Denise Marshall said: She appeared in Doctor Who, a programme watched by lots of young people. To then go and give endorsement to a programme like Secret Diary is obscene.

In the TV drama, which returns to ITV2 on Friday, Piper's character provides sex services in swanky surroundings with handsome men.

Denise added: For this privileged young woman to misrepresent the reality of prostitution is appalling.

A spokesman for Tiger Aspect Productions which makes the show, said: The programme in no way seeks to condone or normalise prostitution.

Update: Warm Reception

13th September 2008

Star Billie Piper said that the warm reception the show received in the US made a welcome change from criticism in this country that it glamorised prostitution.

She said: I was really thrilled as it got some serious slamming over here and it was just quite nice that in the reviews Stateside they were more thorough about the ideas that the show had, rather than about me being an irresponsible role model.

The Poppy Project's recent survey of the off-street sex industry in London shows that the industry is populated by adult women (average age 21, with no firm evidence of under-18s working) who are obeying current laws, are in control of their work (no concrete evidence of trafficking was found), in some cases are being very well paid for what they do and are taking sensible steps to protect themselves (98 per cent of establishments insist that clients wear condoms). The research also shows that low-key sex-work establishments cause no problems to their neighbours, stating that many premises are in residential areas and of "discreet" appearance.

Despite this evidence, the Poppy Project, some government ministers and other campaigning groups continue to claim that the sex industry is saturated with underage girls and trafficked "sex slaves". They also claim this situation will be improved by driving the industry further underground and by criminalising our clients. Earlier research by Poppy found that only 5 per cent of clients would be dissuaded from buying sex if doing so were criminalised.

As part of the Government's review, Vernon Coaker met with a group of 21 sex workers, who between them had over 250 years' experience of selling sex. All described how the law endangers them and had broadly positive experience of clients. It is time campaigning organisations and the Government itself prioritised sex workers' safety over ideology and moral judgement, and listened to the voice of people from the industry.

The new research by the Poppy Project, Big Brothel, a survey of the off-street sex industry in Lodon, has generated shock and headlines that sex can be purchased in London for as little as £15 and highlighted the fact that sex without condoms is available.

However, closer inspection of the data reveals that only 2% of brothels contacted by phone by researchers offer sex without condoms. This leaves a very impressive 98% of establishments insisting on condom use. Many brothels charge for the amount of time a customer spends with a sex worker and the £15 fee quoted does not specify whether or not this is for a 10- or 15-minute appointment. Certainly, according to the research, the average fee is more than £60, with some charging up to £250 for sex. The survey found no concrete evidence of girls under 18 working in brothels – the average age was 21.

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Evidence from the recent police and Home Office joint operation – Pentameter Two – a comprehensive and intelligence-led sweep of brothels across the land, netted only double figures of suspected trafficking victims. Denis MacShane has quoted a figure of 25,000 trafficked women and children in this country. Where are the others? Either the police are doing a lousy job at flushing them out or more likely, they're not here in the numbers quoted.

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I'm a sex worker – don't take away my livelihood

See also article from guardian.co.uk by Lara

The 'Big Brothel' report paints women in my industry as victims. Some may be – but to generalise is patronising and offensive.

I work from a flat on which I pay the mortgage – I do not have any landlord to worry about. I charge £150 per hour and I get enough enquiries to enable me to choose my own working hours. In a typical day I drop my children off at school at 9am, return home, shower and get changed into my alter-ego, Lara (we never use our own names). I then might have an hour's appointment at 11am and another at 1pm, leaving me with a break of an hour in between to shower and refresh myself. I then fetch myself a late lunch and am at the school again to collect my children at 3:30pm. It works. I never see more than two clients a day; most days I see only one; on other days none at all. Yet in just three hours' work I can earn the same as I used to earn in a week working at the office.

My clients are on the whole middle-aged businessmen. I have never been treated with anything less than respect by any one of them. I have not been physically or sexually abused by any of them. Of course I have my security systems in place should anything go wrong, but so far nothing has. My children have their mother now, and not just on a part-time basis. I have time with them to enjoy their childhoods, without any of us suffering financially. I am not making big bucks – but I am earning a little more money to boot.

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Top academics involved in sex research have launched an attack on "seriously flawed" government-funded research into British brothels.

The academics claim that research into prostitution in the UK published last month by the Poppy Project, which is partly funded by the Ministry of Justice, is inaccurate and unethical.

The research in the Big Brothel report exhibits serious flaws in its mode of data collection and analysis, they warn.

The group of 27 key figures in sex work research from prestigious universities across the UK and overseas claim the report was conducted with neither ethical approval nor acknowledgement of evidence and co-authored by a journalist known for producing anti-prostitution findings.

The Poppy Project has received £5.8m in government funding and the women and equality minister, Harriet Harman, has publicly endorsed the organisation. The report's findings lend weight to Home Office moves to make it against the law to pay for sex.

The row comes just days before the October 8 deadline of a Home Office consultation into proposals to amend existing legislation on prostitution and brothels. The proposals, which will go before parliament in December, would create a new criminal offence of paying for sex with a person controlled for gain, enable police to close brothels and change the definition of kerb-crawling.

The academics, led by Dr Teela Sanders at Leeds University and Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon at Birkbeck, University of London, have condemned the research.

Their response, sent to the Poppy Project and Harman, states: The report builds a damning picture of indoor sex work on the basis of data whose reliability and representativeness is extremely doubtful and a methodological approach that would be considered unethical by most professional social researchers. It makes claims about trafficking, exploitation and the current working conditions of women and men employed in the indoor sex industry on the basis of that data.

These claims cannot be substantiated in terms of the methodology, the data presented or in terms of wider, ethically approved, peer reviewed academic evidence. In short, the report does not provide any evidence concerning the current working conditions of women and men employed in indoor sex work venues in the UK.

The Big Brothel report, co-authored by journalist and campaigner Julie Bindel and Helen Atkins, received huge media coverage last month.

But critics accused it of conflating fears over trafficking with general prostitution.

Brooks-Gordon said: You can't just churn out political propaganda and say it's research. You end up with very dangerous policy. The government has to bear responsibility if they have put tenders out for research and the people carrying out that research are not following full ethics procedures.

She called the report a shocker. Not only is the methodology flawed but it shows a complete lack of understanding about the sex industry.

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