Holyrood committee split on prostitution Bill as concerns raised GO TO THE 2-MINUTE TOOL NOW: nmnow.org/ The Scottish Criminal Justice Committee has released its report on Ash Regan’s Unbuyable Bill. They recognise the harms that prostitution causes but seemingly illogically half of the committee members could not bring themselves to back making paying for sex a criminal offence. Apparently they think that men should have carte blanche to continue this harmful and backward traditional practice and let women continue to carry the consequences in ruined lives and generational trauma. It would seem that half of the committee have revealed their naivety by swallowing the bizarre assertions by lobbyists that criminalising buying sex will cause more harm to the women involved because they won’t be able to screen “clients” any more – when there is no evidence that this is the norm in the sex industry in the UK today – where buyers’ anonymity is sacrosanct. We have written about this in a new myth buster (see link below). The Scottish Parliament will vote on this on Tuesday 3 February. If you live in Scotland, NOW IS THE TIME to write to your MSPs asking them to support women and vote for the Bill. Using our 2-minute tool, this only takes 2 minutes.

Angus Women's Aid Children's Service operates in all areas across Angus but over the past year Arbroath, Montrose and Forfar have seen the largest amount of referrals to the service. #anguswomensaid #16days #scottishwomensaid

Today marks the first day of the 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign. Let's all come together and call for an end to violence against women and girls. #16daysofactivis