College officials are keen that there should remain tough laws to deal with men who coerce people

College officials are keen that there should remain tough laws to deal with men who coerce people into prostitution. They believe that public order and planning laws could be used to protect call girls. The resolution proposes the repeal of the Street Offences Act, which covers soliciting, and the Sexual Offences Act, which criminalises the operation of brothels and “living off immoral earnings”.Proposing the motion, Julia Fearon, of the Society of Paediatric Nursing, said decriminalisation would not tackle poverty, one of the main causes of the trade.But prostitutes feared discrimination and prosecution if they were to come forward for treatment. Those who are parents fear having their children taken away, she told the conference.Ms Fearon said her primary concern was about the welfare of young people. She pointed out that a Children’s Society survey had found that one in seven runaways, both boys and girls, had been driven to sell sex for money. Between 1989 and 1994 there was a 35 per cent increase in the number of 10 to 16-year-old girls cautioned for soliciting.The English Collective of Prostitutes estimates that 70 per cent of call girls were lone parents, of whom the majority were devoted mothers protective of their offspring.Ms Fearon said the present laws were “discriminatory, sexist and bizarre” which protected no one and did not control prostitution.

She said police turned a blind eye to the activities of sauna and massage parlours in Edinburgh and Bristol and that the policy had worked.However, Robbi Robson, assistant director of nursing policy for the RCN, said that such a policy amounted to the “worst of both worlds”. Prostitutes were allowed to carry on their work, but had no protection from exploitation.Gail Trotter, an outreach worker in Edinburgh, said call girls were currently caught in a “cycle of entrapment”. They were arrested by the police, fined by the courts and then forced back on to the streets to pay the fine.Sarah Scrase, whose hospital in Southampton covers a red light district, said girls averaged nine minutes per client for which they charged between pounds 5 and pounds 25. She said it would be far less dangerous if they could ply their trade indoors.Arguing against the motion, Liz Rees, of Gwynedd, said the issue was the concern of the English Collective of Prostitutes rather than the RCN, which could be in danger of encouraging people into prostitution “Yes to good health but no to decriminalisation,” she said.. Midwives yesterday suspended their threatened ballot on industrial action after health chiefs agreed to 11th hour talks on pay, writes Barrie Clement.

Health ministers have given the green light for the exploratory talks to be held next week, the Royal College of Midwives said.
The general secretary of the college, Julia Allison, said: “The ballot has been suspended for the time being.”Ballot papers on industrial action short of a strike were ready to be sent to the RCM’s 30,000 members within days, a spokesman said.In March midwives voted overwhelmingly to overturn their 115-year no- strike policy after the Government offered them the same 1 per cent and local pay negotiation as nurses.Meanwhile, relations between ministers and leaders of the Royal College of Nursing deteriorated further in the wake of a Government threat to abolish the nurse’s review body.Christine Hancock, general secretary of the college, yesterday delivered her formal reply to an open letter from the Health Minister, Gerald Malone, which she described as “offensive”.The minister had threatened on Wednesday to scrap the pay body after the RCN voted to recommend abolition of its rule banning industrial action.In his letter Mr Malone rejected the union’s contention that limited disruption to the health service’s financial system would not hurt patients.Ms Hancock told the minister he was right to acknowledge the power that nurses now had to disrupt administrative tasks However, RCN members understood their patients. “It is this understanding that will enable nurses to take action without ever harming a patient. Nurses practice their profession to prevent and alleviate pain, not to cause it, and for you to suggest otherwise is offensive.”It was unacceptable that nurses’ pay should be singled out for different treatment. Doctors were balloting on industrial action, but their review body was not under threat. And a review body system was imposed on teachers despite strike action.Ms Hancock said she was therefore at a loss to understand the Government’s reasoning.She told the minister she thought nurses’ “outrage” at the Government’s handling of pay had reached its peak when they voted to rescind the no industrial action rule. However, the letter from Mr Malone had caused further fury which led to an overwhelming vote of no confidence in him on Wednesday..