Men who use prostitutes abroad should be prosecuted according to new Parliamentary report

British men who use prostitutes abroad should be prosecuted according to a report supported by a senior MP.

The Sex Buyer Law report due to be published tomorrow, commissioned for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Prostitution, by the group End Demand, argues paying for sex should be illegal and that Parliament should strongly consider making it an offence to pay for sex abroad too.

Chairman of the APPG, Gavin Shuker MP backs the proposals.

He said: “Speaking personally, I think the idea has merit for one simple reason: many people’s first experience of buying sex takes place abroad.”

The British Medical Journal published research in 2014 stating that of the 11 per cent of men in the UK between 16 and 74 who have paid for sex, 63 per cent did so outside of the UK – mainly on the Continent.

Diane Martin, one of the report’s authors and a former prostitute, said other research indicated men are more inclined to buy sex in countries where attitudes towards prostitution encourage its purchase.

“Stag parties visiting Amsterdam and men confronted with a ‘lunchtime deal’ on offer from a mega-brothel in Germany get the message that buying sex is normal,” she said.

Paying for sex is legal in the UK – though certain aspects of it are illegal such as kerb crawling and soliciting.

Since 2014, the APPG has called for the UK to adopt the Nordic model which criminalises the purchase of sex but not the sale. Advocates of the model suggest this addresses the imbalance between the genders and acts as a deterrent to the sale of sex.