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Websites advertising sexual services are a major enabler of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation and, according to Police Scotland, they are somewhere where crime groups hide in plain sight. Does the minister think that the current legislative framework in Scotland provides our law enforcement agencies with all the tools that they require to end the exploitation and bring perpetrators to justice?

Would Maggie Chapman acknowledge that, although we might call them different names, people who had been involved in prostitution were very much represented in our inquiry? We spoke with those who were involved in what might be deemed high-class prostitution and people who had been victimised in the street. Current sex workers were also invited to take part, but they declined.

Today, I am calling for three things: the Scottish Government to outlaw online pimping, traffickers and exploiters to be held to account with the full force of our criminal justice system, and the provision of comprehensive support and exiting services for women who have been advertised and exploited via pimping websites.

I thank colleagues from the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party for supporting my motion and enabling the debate to go ahead. I thank members for their speeches today. I am grateful to UK Feminista, which supported and facilitated the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on commercial sexual exploitation’s inquiry and to all those who took part. I also thank all those who have provided briefing materials and feedback—in particular, A Model for Scotland. I declare an interest as a member of the steering group, however, it is the members of the group—the women who have generously and openly shared their lived experience and expertise, women who have exited prostitution, the front-line organisations that work with women, and the grass-roots campaigners—who do the real work. I am grateful to know them and I feel privileged to work with them. Their courage and tenacity are awe inspiring.

In 2021, the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on commercial sexual exploitation, which I co-convene with Rhoda Grant, conducted an inquiry into pimping websites. Most people in Scotland would be surprised to know that in our country, our current laws mean that criminal gangs that profit from sexual exploitation of women can hide in plain sight by using so-called adult services websites. A quick glance at one of those sites will show that in this city, right now, there are women who have been trafficked—both from outwith and within our borders—who are being subjected to abuse, violence and humiliation to satisfy the demands of a minority of men. It is happening not only in Edinburgh, but right across the country.

Scotland’s laws on prostitution have not kept pace with technological change. As a result, commercial pimping websites, which advertise individuals for prostitution across Scotland, currently operate openly and freely. The problem that we face is that online pimping is legal and fuels sex trafficking in Scotland.

Detective Superintendent Filippo Capaldi, who is the head of Police Scotland’s human trafficking unit, told our inquiry:

“Adult Services Websites are one of the main facilitators of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Scotland and the rest of the UK, and we come across them quite commonly when we are dealing with trafficking inquiries, particularly involving foreign nationals.”

Pimping websites enable and incentivise sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. Those websites, which host adverts for prostitution, expand the scale of sexual exploitation and enable anyone on the internet to anonymously access women who are advertised for prostitution. Websites are routinely used by sex traffickers, and there is no realistic way in which the website operators can prevent that.

Most prostitution advertising now takes place online rather than on the street or in local newspapers. A small number of websites dominate that online advertising marketplace. Those market-leading websites centralise and concentrate demand from sex buyers across Scotland. By placing an advert on one of those sites, trafficking gangs can quickly and easily advertise their victims to sex buyers throughout the country as well as move their victims between locations by simply altering the location information on their advert.

Frankly, those websites make the brutal business of sex trafficking easier and quicker for criminals. They do not deliver protection or security to the women who are advertised on them; on the contrary, they typically openly display the phone numbers of the women who are advertised, which allows anyone with access to the internet to immediately and anonymously access those women.

There is also no way in which website operators can identify whether a woman is being advertised on their site or exploited by a third party, such as a trafficker or pimp. As Megan King, who is a survivor of prostitution, told our inquiry:

“When I was handed over to my first client, at which point I had no idea I was being sold into the sex trade, that client took intimate photos of me, some in my underwear and others more intimate and degrading. The underwear shots were then used as profile pictures on my Adultwork profile that my pimp created without my knowledge or consent.”

She said that

“there’s no real way that [the website] can verify that that woman is the same woman that is then sold to a punter. In my situation, I believe that my pimp’s wife took passport photographs under which all of his girls were then advertised.”

An inquiry by the United Kingdom Parliament’s all-party parliamentary group on prostitution and the global sex trade concluded that pimping websites are now core to the typical business model for sex trafficking. Those websites have turbocharged the sex-trafficking trade. They incentivise sexual exploitation by making it quick and easy for pimps and traffickers to advertise their victims to men who pay for sex. In Scotland, that online pimping is taking place on an industrial scale, but the operations fall through the cracks of our outdated prostitution laws, and website owners profit from that exploitation with impunity.

The Scottish Government must, with urgency, get on with adopting laws against sexual exploitation that are fit for the 21st century. That requires making it a criminal offence to enable or profit from prostitution of another person, tackling men’s demand by criminalising paying for sex, and decriminalising and supporting victims of sexual exploitation.

It is time to get serious about men’s violence against women and girls in all its forms. It is time to put pimps and traffickers out of business.

Housing is important. Good-quality and affordable homes, as well as being good for health, support valuable local jobs. They are a good example of creating a wellbeing economy.

We all agree that the best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Scotland already has a strong framework of housing rights for those who are recognised as homeless or are threatened with homelessness. Under Scots law, a person should be treated as homeless even if they have accommodation, if it would not be reasonable for them to continue to stay in it.

If someone is legally homeless, they are entitled to stay in temporary accommodation while the local authority checks their eligibility for a permanent home. Local authorities have a pre-existing legal duty to help people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. That legal duty includes the need to provide information and advice on homelessness and its prevention, and to offer temporary or permanent accommodation.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 established the right to review homelessness decisions and introduced the duty on registered social landlords to assist local authorities in rehousing homeless people. Anyone who finds themselves homeless through no fault of their own must be entitled to settled accommodation in a local authority or housing association tenancy, or in a private rental, not in bed and breakfasts or hotels for more than seven days.

The new proposals under the duties to prevent homelessness build on the strong housing rights that already exist in Scotland for people who become homeless.

Homelessness is often a traumatic and unsettling experience that can have a profound impact on the lives of those involved, including children. It is right that early action should be a shared public responsibility and that we give people who face homelessness more choice and control over where they live. A lack of choice can compound the distress that is already being felt by the person who is experiencing homelessness. I strongly agree that those who face homelessness should have an appropriate degree of choice in where they live and have access to the same accommodation options as other members of the public do. That point was made very well by my colleague Elena Whitham, who expanded on the benefits of getting it right the first time.

In relation to choice, it is only fair to acknowledge that, in my constituency, demand for social housing far outweighs availability. Thousands of people and families are on waiting lists, and they find their choices severely limited and the situation in which they find themselves limiting.

As we are discussing housing, I take the opportunity to mention, again, the importance of rent affordability. When wages are not going up, year-on-year rent increases are putting additional pressure on families at a time when household budgets are already stretched. Rent is the single largest cost for many families, so getting the affordability bit of affordable housing right is crucial and can make a real difference in preventing poverty and improving people’s lives.

Therefore, the investment that the Scottish Government is making in preventing homelessness and in building affordable homes is very welcome. By building more affordable homes, we provide warm and safe places for people to live. By intervening at an earlier stage and encouraging services to work together to respond to people’s needs, we can ensure that fewer people and families have to rebuild their lives and be affected by homelessness.

Emergency restrictions and protections were legislated for quickly when required during the pandemic. They were necessary and will have saved and protected lives. However, some people may feel that such provisions should only ever be temporary and be used only to deal with emergencies.

Although Scottish ministers have already removed many of the temporary measures that supported our country’s response to the pandemic, what assurance can the First Minister give that the measures that are being kept are those that have delivered clear benefits and, therefore, merit being extended in the long term?

As restrictions and protections are eased and we begin to adapt to living with Covid-19, this will be an anxious time for some of my constituents, especially those in higher risk groups. Can the First Minister outline how the distance aware scheme might help to provide confidence and support to people who are worried about mixing with others?

I thank Jamie Greene for taking an intervention, as I know that we are short of time. I am interested in hearing his reflections on whether rising global tensions reinforce the case for getting rid of nuclear weapons and perhaps make that more urgent.

I thank Bill Kidd for securing this important debate on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which came into force on 22 January 2021. I acknowledge Bill’s long-standing commitment to nuclear disarmament, peace and justice. I will not call him a veteran campaigner—the last time I did that, he did not like it very much—but I will say that his perseverance is inspiring.

The TPNW entered into force on 22 January 2021 and, so far, 59 states have fully ratified it and are now bound by its provisions. Countries that have signed up to the treaty must never

“Develop, test, produce ... acquire ... stockpile ... transfer ... use, or threaten to use nuclear weapons”.

They are also forbidden to host another country’s nuclear weapons on their territory or to assist or encourage anyone else to engage in any of those prohibited activities.

I have to ask why anyone—or any state—would wish to use these abhorrent weapons, which are the most inhumane instruments of destruction ever created and weapons that, when they are deployed, incinerate human life. Close to 250,000 civilians met that unimaginable end in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and many thousands more have since died from radiation-related illnesses.

To date, the UK has continued to insist that it will not sign the treaty nor be an observer at the first meeting of the state parties to the treaty, in March. The UK has also—shockingly—decided to increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons, in clear breach of its obligations under the NPT. The TPNW, with its emphasis on prohibition and elimination, could rectify that deficit.

Safety and security are about more than the absence of violence and war. They are about creating a just and equal society in which everyone can achieve their full potential, in which no one is left behind and in which we help to nurture and support those who need it. The challenges and sacrifices that we have endured over the past couple of years have highlighted that point more than ever—they have highlighted what is important. As we build back from Covid, recovery must include the end of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons are, of course, immoral. However, it is not just immoral but economically illiterate to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on weapons of mass destruction when that money could be invested in a recovery that actually benefits our citizens.

Paragraph 4 of article 4 of the treaty has a clear relevance for Scotland. It states that

“each State Party that has any nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices in its territory or in any place under its jurisdiction or control that are owned, possessed or controlled by another State shall ensure the prompt removal of such weapons, as soon as possible”.

When the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, endorsed the Scottish Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s covenant to support the TPNW’s entering into force, she said:

“While the Scottish Government is unable to become a party to the treaty, as First Minister I strongly support the principles of the treaty and the work of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. An independent Scotland would be a keen signatory and I hope the day we can do that is not far off.”

As Bill Kidd pointed out, the majority of parliamentarians in Scotland have signed the ICAN parliamentary pledge, and our First Minister has spoken in support of nuclear disarmament. I believe that the only way to guarantee an end to nuclear weapons in Scotland is for us to regain our independence as a nation, and I look forward to the day when we do that.

Having seen the details of risk assessments, does the minister personally feel that there is ever an acceptable level of risk in having those weapons travelling on our roads and through our major cities at any time, but perhaps especially when we are in a pandemic and our emergency services are already stretched?

Will Jamie Greene take an intervention?