Regulation, Health and Safety

Personal supervision of a licensed brothel

Whenever a licensed brothel is open for business, either the licensee or an approved manager must personally supervise the brothel at all times. Should a licensee or approved manager not be in attendance at the brothel, both the licensee and the approved manager (whose duty it was to personally supervise the business at the time) commit an offence.

When can a manager act as a licensee?

If a licensee dies or becomes incapable of discharging the duties of a licensee because of physical or mental incapacity, the approved manager may apply to the PLA for authorisation to act as the licensee of the brothel specified in the licence. Should the PLA authorise this, the licence will be endorsed to show that the approved manager is acting as licensee for the period endorsed on the licence. The approved manager is then subject to the obligations of a licensee under the Prostitution Act 1999.

Can I advertise prostitution services?

The Prostitution Act places restrictions on the nature of advertising allowed for prostitution services. The rules for advertising sexual services are established in the advertising section of this website.

Prostitution Regulation 2000

The Prostitution Regulation 2000 contains some additional requirements for brothel licensees, and should be read in conjunction with the Prostitution Act. The Prostitution Regulation is also available on the internet from the on-line legislation pages of the Queensland Government website at www.legislation.qld.gov.au

What are the licensee’s duties about alarms, lights and signs?

A licensee of a brothel must ensure:

• each room in the brothel has a concealed alarm button, or equivalent communication device, that is in working order
• each room in the brothel has enough lighting to enable the sex workers to check clients for clearly visible signs of sexually transmissible disease
• a sign is prominently displayed in the brothel’s reception area stating ‘only safe sexual activities are practised on these premises’.