Prostitutes' support group wins £360,000 grant from Lottery

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Independent
By Maxine Frith, Social Affairs Correspondent
09 February 2005


More than £350,000 of National Lottery money has been awarded to a project that gives advice to prostitutes.

The award of £359,291 to the UK Network of Sex Work Projects has been approved by the Big Lottery Fund (BLF), which was set up last year as a new channel of cash to good causes. Organisers of the network said the money would be spent on advising male and female sex workers on their safety, welfare, health and legal rights. Prostitutes who want to get off the streets will be given help, and a directory of support services will be published. The award will also enable the network to employ full-time staff and set up best practice guidelines.

The grant will reignite criticism of the way in which lottery cash is allocated, just months after a massive overhaul of the system to regain public support. Jacqui Lait, a shadow home affairs minister, said: "The awarding of controversial grants like these has undermined public confidence that lottery money goes to genuinely good causes... We want to restore the funding to the four good causes that were supported by the lottery under the Conservatives - Sport, Charities, Arts and Heritage."

Rosie Campbell, who chairs the Network of Sex Work Projects, said she believed the grant would win public support. "I may be naïve but I think general public would recognise the need for support for socially excluded groups, particularly around the issues of street sex work."

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