Work in Contractual Sex Work: Rules Updated

A mainly technical update, with no substantive change

This law updates the provisions governing contractual sex work to keep them consistent following a major reform of offences and penalties. Its main purpose is to prevent gaps in existing protections caused by changes in classification and terminology in criminal law.

What changes for access to contractual sex work

The rules that bar certain individuals convicted of serious offences from holding roles connected to the organisation of contractual sex work are maintained, but rewritten using the new categories and updated names of offences. The underlying approach remains the same: to exclude from supervisory and managerial activities those whose criminal record is incompatible with the safety and physical integrity of sex workers.

Practical consequences

• Checks and verifications linked to convictions remain possible and continue to target the same types of serious conduct (violence, sexual offences, exploitation, trafficking, extortion, fraud).
• The obligations of employers and organisations that engage sex workers under contract remain aligned with the protective objective: limiting the risks of abuse, coercion and exploitation.
• In practice, this is primarily a legal safeguard: the protections provided for contractual sex work continue to apply even if criminal law provisions have been reorganised.