Ash Regan MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) has put forward the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, colloquially known as the ‘Unbuyable’ bill, in the Scottish Parliament. If passed, this will bring the Nordic Model approach to prostitution policy and legislation to Scotland.
We very strongly support this bill and hope with all our might that it will pass. We were therefore thrilled when we were invited to give oral evidence to the Criminal Justice Committee in the Scottish Parliament on 8 October 2025 when it was scutinising the bill.
Amanda Quick, one of the prostitution survivors in the Nordic Model Now! group, agreed to go. While she had spoken over Zoom at a couple of events in Scotland organised by other organisations, this was her first time speaking so publicly (the session was broadcast live) about this deeply personal issue. But we had every confidence that if anyone could get the raw unvarnished reality through to the committee members, it would be her. And indeed she did. And then some.
In that formal setting in the Scottish Parliament, in a session chaired by a woman who repeatedly reminded everyone that they were to discuss the draft legislation in the bill and not other issues no matter how related, Amanda steadfastly brought everything back to the messy reality – the entitlement and cruelty of the male punters, the violence, the misery, and the grinding down of her self-worth until doing anything else became unimaginable. This required extraordinary courage and strength, by which we are humbled.
Alongside her on the panel were two other brilliant women: Diane Martin CBE, chair of the A Model For Scotland campaign group and also a survivor of prostitution; and Bronagh Andrew, the operations manager of Tara and Routes Out Services in Glasgow. Both eloquent and highly knowledgeable, they also brought much needed expertise to the session.
You can watch the entire session on the Scottish Parliament website, but below we have included two clips of Amanda speaking. These contain information licensed under the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence.
“As long as a women’s body is for sale, that’s all she’s bloody worth.”
Here is Amanda keeping it real, talking about the reality of prostitution and the message of selling a body is grooming women and girls wellbeing into worthlessness; where the male urge, need or “right” to pay for an orgasm incites entitlement, commodification, exploitation and an endless cycle of unaccountable levels of violence to the women selling, as well as to their partners or wives.
“It’s an insatiable industry.”
Here she is again talking about the impact of reading reviews punters had left after she declined a request and he attempted rape. She realised in these moments she had lost the power of any consent, either with the client or after she managed to get the client out of the room. She was damned to sexual, verbal or written violence against her.
Some might prefer us to stick to data and statistics, but would it be ethical to make decisions about prostitution policy without understanding what it is really about – institutionalised male violence against (mainly) women and children.
How can you help this bill pass
If you live in Scotland, please write to your MSP to ask them to support this bill and to explain why you support it. We have a tool you can use to quickly send a template email to your MSP. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to do so too.
If you don’t live in Scotland, please help raise awareness of the Nordic Model generally and why you hope that the Scottish Parliament takes the historic step of passing this bill.
Additional written evidence
Several times during the session, Amanda referenced studies and other evidence that she explained she would send on after the session.
Having been involved for five years (2000-2025) in a campaign against the harm of pornography (SWAP) and during that time viewing and reading some very disturbing material I find it very worrying and totally depressing that twenty years on the situation is considerably worse. The abuse of women is even more normalised and has become the wallpaper of women’s lives. This is especially true for young girls.
My partner in Swap took part in a piece of research during that time which interviewed men who had used prostitutes and were willing to talk anonymously about their experience. One of the replies I remember from these interviews was that many of the men interviewed made it clear that they would cease using prostitutes if buying was made illegal.
Regardless if making prostitution illegal makes no difference to men’s behaviour (which I definitely do not believe) I would argue that passing this legislation is overdue given that the Scottish Government is pledged to address violence against women and the fact that men in Scotland are still able to buy women is a total contradiction of that goal.