Sexual Offences Act 1985

The Sexual Offences Act 1985 (c.44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created two offences concerning prostitution, and increased the maximum sentence for attempted rape from 7 years to life imprisonment.

The new offences were kerb crawling and persistently soliciting women for the purposes of prostitution. In 1991 the Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Allan Green KCB QC, was arrested for an offence under this Act and had to resign.

The kerb crawling and soliciting offences, and related provisions, are still in force, but the other provisions of the Act were repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003.