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Can now get your sex without prosecution
New law to permit small brothels
About 80,000 women in Britain work as prostitutes
The law is to be changed to allow two prostitutes and a receptionist or maid to work together legally in brothels, the government has confirmed.
Currently only lone prostitutes can offer sex from flats or other premises without breaking the law.
Launching the new prostitution strategy for England and Wales, minister Fiona Mactaggart said that working in groups would be safer for women.
The Home Office plans also include tougher rules for men who buy sex.
The strategy also means more kerb-crawlers could lose their driving licences, while prostitutes would get help over drugs and housing.
Ministers have ditched earlier plans for licensed red-light zones, believing they could send out the wrong message.
But prostitute groups said crackdowns could put sex workers in greater danger.
Former home secretary David Blunkett announced plans in 2004 to decriminalise some brothels in what would have been the biggest shake-up of prostitution laws for 50 years.
But the Home Office has rejected this proposal, saying prostitution blighted communities.
'Wrong message'
Instead, the new strategy includes measures to help stop children and teenagers being lured into the trade.
There will also be more action against those who exploit prostitutes, including action to target people traffickers.
If there's a crackdown, clients are much more nervous - and women don't have time to check them out properly...
Carrie Mitchell,
English Collective of Prostitutes
Head-to-head: The strategy
But Carrie Mitchell of the English Collective of Prostitutes told the BBC crackdowns made clients much more nervous and the streets more dangerous for the women.
"Very obviously, if there's a crackdown, clients are much more nervous. And women don't have time to check them out properly before they get in the car," she said.
"The attacks just go up because women are getting in the car with men who they would otherwise refuse to get in the car with.
"You have to just suss out the man before you get in the car with him, obviously, and this is very, very difficult when there's a crackdown going on."
Instead, the group is calling for the end of criminalisation of prostitution.
Drink and drugs
Under the new strategy, police will be encouraged to work more closely with charities running safe houses to help women get out of the sex trade.
The strategy includes measures to encourage women to leave the sex trade and get help with drink or drug problems.
These include creating a new penalty for the offence of loitering or soliciting for prostitution so that courts can direct women into drug or alcohol programmes.
And ministers promise to ensure access to drug treatment services, health services and supported accommodation to women who want to get out of prostitution.
Measures to improve prostitutes' safety include expanding the Ugly Mugs scheme, already running in several areas, which lets prostitutes know about violent punters.
Ministers say they will ensure that anti-social behaviour orders, intervention orders and acceptable behaviour contracts for prostitutes are used in conjunction with support projects and do not stop the women from getting help.
The government will tighten up guidance for social workers, focusing on the children most at risk from being lured into prostitution, such as those not in proper education and those leaving care.
Teachers, police officers and nurses will be trained to help the spot the risks and early signs of prostitution or sexual exploitation.
'Child abuse'
Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart has previously compared kerb-crawlers with child abusers.
"I don't think most men who use prostitutes think of themselves as child abusers, but they are," she told the Observer newspaper on Sunday.
"It could change things if we changed the view of prostitution from 'it's the oldest profession' to 'this is the most common form of child abuse'."
And Ms Mactaggart told the BBC last month prostitution was "a form of child abuse" as most women started being prostitutes at age 13 or 14.
About 80,000 women in Britain work as prostitutes, and half of those are under 25, the Home Office estimates.
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