‘Prostitute’s cautions’ need reform, Assembly says

A ‘prostitute’s caution’ will show up on a woman’s enhanced DBS check until she is 100.

But a simple police caution is spent after two and a half years, filtered out from someone’s record after six years and does not need to be disclosed to employers.

The London Assembly has today asked the Mayor to work with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to change this so women and people in sex work are not criminalised and stigmatised for the rest of their lives.

Zoë Garbett AM, who proposed the motion, said:

“If we are serious about reducing harm for every Londoner, then we must create the conditions in our city for sex workers to be safe.

“This motion asks the Mayor to work with the Metropolitan Police to change data retention practices, so women and people in sex work are not criminalised and stigmatised for the rest of their lives.

“I’m proud to introduce this important motion to protect London’s sex workers, and thank Assembly Chair Andrew Boff for his passionate support.” 

Andrew Boff AM, who seconded the motion, said:

“This is about simple consistency. If the police caution you, you have to admit guilt, have the right to appeal, and after two and a half years it will have been spent. After six it will come off your record and you won’t have to disclose it to employers.

“Conversely, a prostitute’s caution will show up on an enhanced DBS check for the rest of someone’s life and can’t be appealed or spent. If you receive a police caution it should be the same conditions for everyone, with the same rights.

“I’m pleased this motion has been supported by the Assembly and I hope that the Mayor will now act to set about equalising this legal difference.”

The full text of the motion is:

This Assembly notes the Crown Prosecution Service’s legal guidance on Section1(1) of the Street Offences Act 1959 which acknowledges the ‘prostitute’s caution’ is “different from other cautions in that the incident itself need not be a criminal offence nor need it be admitted: instead, it is a way of recording one such incident.”

We also note that 79 so-called ‘prostitute’s cautions’ were issued by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in 2022 and 45 in 2023, including five to men and one to a trans or gender-diverse person.

Prostitute’s cautions differ from police cautions in that the person doesn’t have to admit guilt and there is no right of appeal against a prostitute’s caution. A simple police caution is spent after two and a half years, filtered out from someone’s record after six years and does not need to be disclosed to employers but a ‘prostitute’s caution’ will show up on a woman’s enhanced DBS check until she is 100.

We ask the Mayor to work with the MPS to change this so women and people in sex work are not criminalised and stigmatised for the rest of their lives, by reducing the data retention times of a ‘prostitute’s caution’ to be comparable with a simple police caution.

The meeting can be viewed via webcast or YouTube.

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