Model upstairs. So says the tacky glittery cardboard stuck at the entrance of a doorway. The weak red light is just enough to see a staircase and another handwritten poster flaunting the beauty of Gina. But we are in Soho in Central London, not Milan. This is a walk-up flat and Gina is not Italian but, most probably, an Eastern European prostitute who has illegally entered Britain.

Forget the myth about Britons being a bunch of reserved Conservatives. They might lose Euro 2004 but they do have enough balls to be crowned as kings of the European sex trade. Last year, they spent Rs 38 billion on the prostitution industry ? they paid more for sex than they did for cinema tickets.

The British government loves nothing more than a thriving industry but, in this case, all the cash is being banked by organised criminals. The sex trade boom is also motivating human trafficking, especially from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. An estimated 80,000 women ? half of whom are under 25 ? work in the British sex industry. Enough reasons to prompt the government to act instead of turning the traditional blind eye to the problem.

The Home Office is due to release a consultation paper soon. This document will propose a radical overhaul of the laws governing prostitution, shifting the focus from sex workers to clients who keep the business going. There will be a crackdown on those paying for the services of prostitutes: persistent kerb crawlers could be penalised by heavier fines, disqualified from driving and served with antisocial behaviour orders, with those who break them being jailed.

?We don?t see that criminalising the men who pay for sex is of any use at all because there are probably millions of men who pay for sex in this country. We need police resources to be focused on the men who are violent to sex workers or who chase after kids,? says Hilary Kinnell, co-ordinator of the UK Network of Sex Work Projects.

Under current laws ? some dating back to the 1950s ? paying for sex is not a crime but prostitution is regulated by making the associated activities of soliciting, kerb crawling, procuring, brothel-keeping and living off immoral earnings criminal offences. Their ubiquity has been repeatedly denounced by the Magistrates? Association, which claims present legislation is ?ineffective and unenforceable?. A Home Office green paper published in 2000 acknowledged that the law on soliciting and loitering for women was archaic and the official description ?common prostitute? was demeaning.

The new laws will offer better protection to sex workers. Research shows that nearly all street-based prostitutes are drug users. Many are homeless, sleeping rough or in crack houses. Hence, any «exit strategy» to help women out of prostitution will need to provide housing linked to drug treatment, childcare, basic skills training and vocational retraining.

Since most prostitutes have criminal records ? making it harder for them to get jobs ? the government is planning reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders? Act, which will limit the need to disclose convictions for prostitution. The review will also recommend legislation to decriminalise prostitutes under 18, treating them as victims of child abuse and offering support and protection.

However, these incentives only cater for street prostitution, which represents only a fraction of the lucrative sex industry. Most prostitutes now work from their own flats or operate as call girls, advertising their services in classifieds, directories and on the Internet. They can therefore bypass pimps, organised criminals, get better protection and make more money.

Without openly backing such initiatives, the Home Office is weighing up the option of decriminalising brothels. Although a single prostitute operating from a room commits no crime, when two or three share premises, it is considered as a brothel, which is illegal. Critics of the current law argue that allowing two or three women to work together would increase their safety without necessarily causing a local nuisance.

Under the new laws, the definition of a brothel could be changed to focus on situations in which prostitutes are exploited by pimps. Licensed brothels could help to break the link between sex workers and controlling pimps and allow for mandatory health checks. However, experience in Australia and Europe has shown that licensed brothels have not always produced a safe working environment nor kept out child prostitutes and women trafficked from abroad.

The Home Office review was initially expected to announce the creation of ?tolerance zones? where prostitutes would be free to work under police surveillance. Managed zones have been unofficially tried in several British cities but early drafts of the consultation paper reject the idea: ?Such a move would normalise the concept of street prostitution and presuppose its continuing existence ? assumptions we need to challenge.?

?Women who work as prostitutes don?t want to be labelled and that happens with the zone. As soon as you go in people know you are a prostitute. Tolerance zones are about getting women into areas where they will be even more vulnerable,? explains Sophie, an escort who works from the comfort of her own flat for Rs 15 000 an hour.

The International Union of Sex Workers believes that laws have not been able to regulate prostitution anywhere in the world. It supports the decriminalisation of the whole industry, a policy, which could make prostitution safer and less exploitative. It would then be as open as any other business. ?Consenting sex should have nothing to do with the law - it is work like any other work,? says Sarah Walker, spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes.

Laws have come and gone but prostitution has not only survived but also thrived. Even the moral panic surrounding the spread of HIV/AIDS has not dented its popularity with both male and female customers. It is not called ?the oldest profession? for nothing. The new laws will try to regulate this huge money-making machine but, ultimately, licensing will be the way ahead because it is the only way the Exchequer can get its hands on some of the cash. The policy will parody Sting: Roxanne, you don?t have to put on the red light... but you can still sell your body to the night.

<B>by Ryan Coopamah

Outlook correspondent in London

E-mail: [email protected]</B>