Forty two per cent of drug misusers involved in the sex trade have experienced the care system, according to a home office report, writes Clare Jerrom.

The research into drug misuse and sex work highlighted that experiences of living in local authority care, running away and being homeless are strongly linked to a young person’s entry into prostitution.

The figure is “extraordinary”, the report said, and is evidence that “looked after children are very vulnerable to involvement in drug use and sex abuse through prostitution”.

Speaking at Drugscope’s third national young people and substance misuse conference in Leeds, home office drugs minister Caroline Flint said: “It is no ‘Pretty Woman’.”

She added that the home office was currently looking at the prostitution issue or particularly “how agencies can work together to prevent young people getting involved in prostitution”.