FEARS have been raised for the safety of Edinburgh's prostitutes after the main support group for sex workers had its funding slashed.
NHS Lothian has cut two-thirds of the annual £150,000 grant it gives to Newhaven-based Scot-Pep which will result in the loss of six jobs.
The move means the group, which has been supporting prostitutes for more than 20 years, will have to withdr
aw its outreach and support services.
NHS Lothian had offered the group £50,000 to continue some of its work. However, Scot-Pep turned this down, arguing that it was not enough to provide an effective quality of service to the women.
Scot-Pep conducts outreach work on the Capital's streets three times a week and has contact with hundreds of prostitutes each year.
The funding cut will also spell the end of the Ugly Mugs Scheme, an initiative run in conjunction with the police which allows sex workers to share information on potentially violent clients.
Health chiefs today said that sex workers in Lothian were no longer at high risk of being infected with HIV and priorities had changed to preventing the disease through other means.
However, Ruth Morgan Thomas, project manager of Scot-Pep, today said the move will leave women more vulnerable to attack.
She said: "We are all obviously gutted about this decision and I think now more than ever support services are needed for sex workers, so this is a real setback.
"Levels of HIV and hepatitis among sex workers are low but we would argue that is partly down to our involvement and there is a danger that, without any support, the levels will increase.
"The absence of this scheme will, in Scot-Pep's opinion, lead to increased levels of violence towards a very vulnerable section of the population.
"This decision was extremely hard in the light of the current climate of driving prostitution further underground by criminalising those involved."
Scot-Pep will continue as a voluntary campaign group despite the funding cut, with the aim of lobbying for changes to sex worker legislation.
Last year, the group warned that law changes which made kerb-crawling illegal – men risk a criminal record and £1000 fine – had seen the trade becoming more dangerous as prostitutes are forced "underground".
Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald said: "I very much regret that Scot-Pep will no longer provide the support for and link with women selling sex.
"The last government and the present have been very muddled in their approach to the management of prostitution."
Jim Sherval, public health specialist with NHS Lothian, said: "It is important to note that female sex workers in Lothian are not high-risk for being infected with HIV. At one time, historically, they were but that is no longer the case.
"We have met with both Scot-Pep and Margo MacDonald, who have both accepted that female sex workers are not at high risk of HIV infection.
"We have offered them £50,000 to support the HIV-related part of their service but they have rejected this offer."
