England and Wales

Prostitution in England and Wales has historically been concerned with the policing and disciplining of "wayward" women, with men seldom explicitly targeted either as clients or workers. The framework remained largely unaltered in England and Wales for more than four decades. However, changing sexual norms, gender roles, and developments in the sex industry have put pressure on the law and an increasingly prohibitionist approach emerged at start of the twenty-first century. In 2010, the Association of Chief Police Officers estimated there were around 6,000 premises where sex was being sold in England and Wales, but there were only 44 offenses recorded in the same year for running a brothel. The Home Office's espousal of a multi-agency response has been taken up differently by local authorities in England and Wales, with the localism agenda encouraging a diverse set of responses.