THE Church of Scotland has hailed moves which could make it an offence to pay someone for sex in Scotland.
The Kirk and other churches have welcomed amendments introduced to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill currently working its way through Holyrood, which would outlaw selling sex and provide support to former sex workers.
The comments came a day after a nationwide campaign was launched calling for the purchase of sex to be made illegal in a bid to stamp out prostitution in Scotland.
The End Prostitution Now campaign aims to put pressure on the Scottish Government to tackle the demand for paid-for sex, described by campaigners as the "root cause" of the country's "commercial sexual exploitation".
Ina separate development, Rhoda Grant MSP has lodged amendments to the Bill, which aims to tackle modern day slavery.
A spokesman for Scottish Churches said: "We understand that this is a complicated issue which requires careful thought, however, evidence clearly points to reduced demand for commercial sexual services after the introduction of similar laws in other countries.
"We believe this legislation would be stronger if it also contained provisions to make it an offence to pay for sexual services. Human trafficking is a global business, it exists to make large profits for the traffickers, and the sale of sexual services by the victims of trafficking is a part of this business.
"We have consistently called for the Scottish Government to follow policies which have been agreed at a European level, including a vote by the European Parliament in 2014 which affirmed that criminalising the purchase of sexual services would be a way of 'combating the trafficking of women and under-age females for sexual exploitation and improving gender equality."
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