Sex workers tear strips off report aimed
at cleaning up lap-dancing
ALAN RODEN
STRIPPERS today condemned the research carried out by a Scottish Executive task force charged with cleaning up Scotland's lap-dancing industry.
The International Union of Sex Workers said that the strategy adopted by the working group was "insubstantial" and "factually inaccurate".
Union chiefs criticised the fact that only six dancers were interviewed, and said some of the information obtained on visits to strip bars was wrongly reported.
The study was crucial in shaping the way Scotland's adult entertainment industry will be regulated in the future.
It recommended ministers ban private booths, rule that performers should not touch or be touched during a dance, and prevent dancers from simulating sex acts. The new rules would have a major effect on the way Edinburgh's seven lap-dancing venues could be run.
The adult entertainment working group (AEWG), chaired by Scottish legal services ombudsman Linda Costelloe Baker, visited clubs and lap-dancing bars across the UK as part of its year-long investigation.
But its findings have been criticised by many in the industry, including strippers, who feel the moves would push dancers into prostitution.
Rachel Frost, spokeswoman for the International Union of Sex Workers and a stripper from London, said today:
"We feel the primary research is insubstantial and in some cases factually inaccurate. Some of the recommendations of the report would make dancers' jobs increasingly difficult and potentially untenable.
"We urge that more extensive research be carried out before decisions are made."
Ms Frost said only six strippers were interviewed in Scotland, and all were female, which she felt was not a representative sample.
She said: "The group could certainly have made more of an effort to speak to dancers, rather than just putting an advert in the newspapers. For example, they could have approached the clubs and arranged for consultation forms to be left in changing rooms."
Ms Frost also said some of the facts in the report were wrong, such as a description of Edinburgh's Western Bar in the West Port. The report said the pub had no evident CCTV, but Ms Frost said it has both cameras and a panic alarm system.
One Edinburgh stripper, who asked the Evening News to use her stage name Candy, today also criticised the research methods.
"The AEWG naively did not think that adult entertainers would be a hard group to contact, and therefore did not specifically target them," she said.
"Dancers are insecure about what will happen if their identities are made public, so they keep their heads down and try not to draw attention to themselves."
The legislation needed for the new licensing system proposed by the group is unlikely to be completed until 2008 or 2009.
As a result, Edinburgh's lap-dance clubs are to be asked to sign up to a voluntary code of conduct which would have them follow tough new rules ahead of a change in the law.
Tollcross councillor Lorna Shiels, one of the AEWG members, said: "We did everything we could to speak to them, and it's easy for them to complain now."
aroden@edinburghnews.com
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