OPPONENTS of Ash Regan’s prostitution bill have questioned the Alba MSP’s cost estimates – after she claimed that it would cost just 50 pence an hour to train police officers on the proposed rules.
Regan is seeking to criminalise the purchase of sex, something opposed by the sex worker pressure group National Ugly Mugs (NUM) which claims she has significantly underestimated the associated costs.
In a financial memorandum submitted to the Scottish Parliament for her Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, the Alba MSP claimed that it would cost as little as 50p to train 17,000 police officers in the new laws if the bill was passed.
The memo said: “There will also be one-off training costs for Police Scotland to prepare for the introduction of the new offence.
“The estimated cost of delivering a two-hour training session to all approximately 17,000 Police Scotland officers, assuming the training is conducted in-house during normal working hours, is approximately £17,000 to £85,000.”
At the higher end of the scale, Regan estimates that it would cost £2.50 to train every officer per hour.
But the same document states that Police Scotland estimates the hourly rate of officers at £79.50.
The total cost of enforcing the new laws would be £2.6 million, falling to £2.2m annually thereafter.
Regan estimates that securing charges in a case would take “on average an additional six hours of police work” and that this would amount to each case costing £477.
NUM said her figures were “laughably false”.
Lynsey Walton, chief executive of NUM, said: “As the UK’s national sex worker safety charity, NUM works with police forces across the country to support sex workers during investigations. This means we know that Regan’s estimates of police time needed to enforce her proposed legislation are laughably false, just like her ludicrous claims that it costs just 50p an hour to train officers.
“Sex worker groups, alongside NGOs like Amnesty and the World Health Organisation, oppose the new law on the grounds that it will make life more difficult and dangerous for sex workers, while costing taxpayers millions of pounds a year to enforce.”
A spokesperson for Regan said: “Police Scotland does not routinely record the cost for any specific operation as officers are deployed to where local policing plans necessitate their services are most required.
“If the Bill becomes Law then it will be an operational matter for Police Scotland to enforce the new law and Ash has full confidence in their ability to do so.
“The division to which individual officers or staff belong meet the cost of their core time. The production of guidance and the roll out of training in relation to the new offence set out in the Unbuyable Bill is expected to be incorporated into the training for new officers.
"Previous Members Bills have provided no financial support for Officer Training whereas Ash Regan’s Bill has prudently set out costs to support training requirements of existing police officers. The manner in which the figures have been presented is either a wilful or ignorant representation of how training needs are facilitated in an organisation.”
