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Once again Edinburgh City Council collected evidence to decide on the number of Sexual Entertainment Venues, or strip clubs, to be are allowed in Edinburgh.
Nil-caps are plainly unlawful as they discriminate against women and other marginalised groups, such as people with disabilities and migrants, who make up the majority of strippers. If Councils continue to adopt them, the consequences for workers across the UK will be devastating.
Hookers Against Hardship is a grassroots campaign of sex worker-led organisations, aiming to raise awareness of the specific experiences of sex workers during, and because of, the cost of living crisis. The spiralling cost of living means that more people, especially women and mothers, will be pushed into sex work; and current sex workers will be facing worse financial hardship. We’re working to try to alleviate sex workers’ financial hardship in the current crisis; and to lobby our elected politicians to combat the poverty, criminalisation, and danger faced by sex workers.
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On the 31st March 2022, Edinburgh City Council voted in favor of a ‘nil-cap’ (a cap of zero) on the number of ‘Sexual Entertainment Venue’ (SEV) licenses allowed in the city. This will force all Edinburgh strip clubs to close as of April 2023, and forbid any new ones from opening. The consequences of this for dancers will be devastating.
This nil-cap is a result of one of the several SEV consultations that have taken place across the UK where workers’ voices have been completely ignored. It leaves hundreds of precarious workers unemployed during a time of unprecedented financial insecurity and rising living costs.
Nil-caps are plainly unlawful as they discriminate against women and other marginalised groups, such as people with disabilities and migrants, who make up the majority of strippers. If Councils continue to adopt them, the consequences for workers across the UK will be devastating.
The Sex Work Union has successfully crowdfunded over 20k to instructed our solicitors Gilson Gray LLP to represent us in the case. Since then, City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) have repeatedly tried to block SWU from representing the rights of our members and to deny the workers a voice in the legal proceedings that will directly impact them. Despite knowing that we are a grassroots union running on voluntary labour, and who had to fundraise money to represent our members – CEC tried to further prevent our involvement by arguing we should be liable for any/all costs incurred by them.
Luckily, we were granted permission to enter the judicial review with full protective expenses order.
The hearing will be held on the 1st-2nd December 2022. We hope to set a legal precedent with this case, and show that SEV nil-caps are both unlawful and discriminatory.
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