Gentlemens Club in Derbyshire, England

Criminal law on prostitution is devolved, so the UK has three regimes. In England and Wales selling and buying sex are legal, but almost everything around them is restricted: brothel-keeping, profiting from or controlling another person's prostitution, persistent street soliciting, kerb crawling, cards in phone boxes, and paying for sex with someone a third party has coerced (a strict-liability offence). Advertising one's own services online is not an offence, and the Crime and Policing Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 without any of the amendments that would have criminalised publishing prostitution adverts. Adult services websites are instead regulated through the Online Safety Act 2023, which makes causing, inciting or controlling prostitution for gain priority illegal content. Scotland is broadly similar; Northern Ireland criminalises buying. Source: Prostitution Laws (prostitutionlaws.org), https://prostitutionlaws.org/countries/united-kingdom/, reviewed 2026-11-04, CC BY 4.0.