It is not possible to provide precise figures as so much prostitution is hidden from view. However published Home Office research has looked at the numbers involved who are drug addicted and has provided broad estimates of the numbers of people trafficked into the UK for the purposes of prostitution. Information on the proportion born outside the UK is not available.
A Home Office Research Study in 2004 profiled 228 women involved in street-based prostitution. It found 87 per cent. were using heroin and 64 per cent. crack cocaine. Anecdotal evidence from respondents to the Home Office-led review of prostitution in 2004 suggested that a high proportion—in many areas, almost all—of those involved in street-based prostitution are Class A drug users. Home Office funded research in 2000 found that 71 women were known to have been trafficked into prostitution in the UK in 1998. Using this figure as a baseline the research estimated that there may have been between 142 and 1,420 women trafficked into the UK during the same period.
A research paper on sizing UK organised crime markets and their associated harms will be published in early 2007. Emerging findings suggest that at any one moment in time in 2003 there were around 4,000 victims of trafficking for prostitution in the UK.
Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform on the number of defendants convicted at all courts for various offences in England and Wales, 1996 to 2005, relating to prostitution can be found in the following table:
Statute Offence Description 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 33A as amended by Sexual Offences Act 2003, section 55 Keeping a brothel used for prostitution — — — — — — — — 4 8 Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 32 Man soliciting or importuning in a public place for immoral purposes 68 47 42 16 9 5 3 9 3 2 Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 33 Keeping a brothel 24 20 12 29 13 6 7 4 15 11 Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 34 Letting premises for use as a brothel 2 2 — 1 — — — — — — Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 35 Tenant permitting premises to be used as a brothel 1 2 — 2 — — — — — — Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 36 Tenant permitting premises to be used for prostitution 3 — — — 1 1 — — — — Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 33 as amended by Sexual Offences Act 1967, section 6 Keeping a brothel for homosexual practices — — — — — — 1 — — — Sexual Offences Act 1985, section 1 Kerb-crawling 1,096 813 700 599 700 775 891 834 760 635 Sexual Offences Act 1985, section 2 Persistent soliciting of women for the purpose of prostitution 56 68 65 51 26 66 102 50 48 34 Vagrancy Act 1824, section 3. Vagrancy Act 1824, section 4 Offences by prostitutes, common prostitute behaving in a riotous and indecent manner in a public place. Offences by prostitutes: Second conviction as an idle and disorderly person 7 7 4 4 1 3 7 17 6 1 Street Offences Act 1959, section 1 Common prostitute loitering or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution 5,429 5,695 5,223 3,378 3,385 2,841 2,668 2,627 1,735 1,116 Other offences relating to prostitution Other offences relating to prostitution — — — 3 — — — — — — Total — 6,686 6,654 6,046 4,083 4,135 3,697 3,679 3,541 2,571 1,807 — = Nil. 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 3 Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates' courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. Source: RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform.