Glossary

Fifty-two terms from listings, forums, prosecution guidance and tax rules, defined the way each source defines them.

Fifty-two terms that turn up in listings, in forums, in prosecution guidance and in tax rules. Legal terms are defined as the statute or the guidance defines them; trade terms as the industry uses them.

A

Agency: An operation that selects escorts, holds the client relationship and arranges bookings on their behalf. Distinguished from a directory, which publishes profiles and leaves contact to the escort.
Alias: The working name an escort uses. Appears on the profile and in all client contact; the real name appears nowhere in the work.

B

BASHH: The British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, which publishes the clinical standards followed by UK sexual health services, including a specific standard for people involved in sex work.
Booking: An agreed appointment of a stated length at a stated fee. The unit of the whole trade.
Brothel: Not defined by statute. The test applied in practice requires two or more people occupying the same premises at the same time for the purposes of prostitution. Keeping or managing one is an offence.

C

Callboy: The standard German term for a male escort. Almost unused in British English.
Check-in: An arrangement whereby a third party knows where an escort is and when he is due to finish, and acts if no message arrives.
Class 2 National Insurance: No longer payable by the self-employed. Profits at or above the Small Profits Threshold are treated as though it had been paid; below that it may be paid voluntarily.
Class 4 National Insurance: Charged on self-employed profits above the personal allowance and collected through Self Assessment.
Client: The person booking. Used throughout the industry in preference to customer or punter.
Commission model: A pricing arrangement where the operation takes a percentage of each booking rather than charging a listing fee.
Companion: A softer synonym for escort, used where the emphasis is on company. Common in agency copy.
Couple booking: A booking made by two people together, most often a mixed couple. Usually carries a higher rate and a longer minimum.
CPS: The Crown Prosecution Service, which publishes the legal guidance determining when prostitution-related offences are charged in England and Wales.

D

Deposit: An advance payment, legitimate where an escort is travelling a long way and unusual otherwise.
Dinner date: A booking of four or five hours including a meal, with the client paying for the restaurant. Quoted as a flat figure rather than by the hour.
Directory: A site publishing escort profiles for a subscription, with clients contacting escorts directly.
Discretion: The expectation, running in both directions, that nothing about a booking or either party is repeated anywhere.

E

Escort: The neutral standard term. Describes the arrangement rather than the person, and is used by both sides of the industry.

G

Gigolo: A man paid by women for company and sex. From French, originally meaning a paid dancing partner. Carries a disparaging edge and is rarely used by the industry.
GUM clinic: Genitourinary medicine clinic, the older name for an NHS sexual health clinic. Still in common use, particularly in Northern Ireland.

H

Hepatitis B vaccination: Recommended for everyone involved in sex work and available free through NHS sexual health services.
HMRC: His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. Taxes the profits of a trade regardless of whether the trade is lawful.

I

Incall: A booking at the escort's own premises. Uncommon among British male escorts, partly because of the brothel-keeping provisions.
Intake interview: A short interview, usually by telephone, conducted before a listing site accepts an applicant. Fifteen to twenty minutes is typical.

K

Kerb-crawling: Soliciting another in a street or public place for the purpose of obtaining sexual services. An offence under section 51A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003; a single approach is sufficient.

M

Making Tax Digital: HMRC's programme requiring quarterly digital reporting, phased in from April 2026 by income level.

N

National Ugly Mugs: A UK-wide charity operating an incident reporting and warning scheme for sex workers. Reports can be made without involving the police.
Nofollow: A link attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking credit. Used on this site for every commercial outbound link.
Nordic model: A legal approach criminalising the purchase of sexual services while decriminalising the sale. In force in Northern Ireland; rejected by the Scottish Parliament in February 2026.
Non-payment: Failure to pay an agreed fee. One of the most commonly reported crimes against UK sex workers, and largely avoided by taking payment at the start of a booking.

O

Outcall: A booking at the client's home or hotel, with the escort travelling. The standard arrangement in the UK male escort market.
Overnight: A booking lasting through the night, quoted as a flat figure considerably below the hourly rate extended across the hours involved.

P

PECR: The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which govern cookies and similar technologies in the UK. Not engaged by a site that stores nothing on a visitor's device.
PrEP: Pre-exposure prophylaxis, medication taken to prevent HIV infection. Free on the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales, and available at GUM clinics in Northern Ireland.
Profile: A listing consisting of photographs, a specification and around a hundred words of text. The whole of what a client sees before making contact.

R

Rate: The hourly fee, set by the escort on directory models. Typically between £75 and £150 in the UK.
Recognisable photographs: Images in which the escort's face can be identified. Produce more bookings; the alternative is editing that obscures the face.
Repeat client: A client who books more than once. The basis of any sustainable escort income.

S

Screening: Checking that a prospective client is who they say they are before agreeing to a booking. Practised by around 85 per cent of UK sex workers surveyed.
Self Assessment: The UK system for declaring self-employed income. Registration is required once income passes the trading allowance.
Small Profits Threshold: The profit level at or above which Class 2 National Insurance is treated as paid. £7,105 for 2026/27.
Soliciting: Approaching or being approached in a public place for the purposes of prostitution. An offence on both sides throughout Great Britain, under different statutes in Scotland.
STI screen: A test panel covering sexually transmitted infections. BASHH recommends three-monthly screening for people offering services involving direct sexual contact.
Straight male escort: A directory label indicating that bookings are taken from women and mixed couples. Describes the market served, not the escort's private life.
Subscription model: A fixed periodic listing fee with no commission, so that the escort keeps the entire booking fee. Six and twelve month terms are standard.

T

Time-waster: An enquirer who has no intention of booking. Recognisable by long conversations that never approach a date.
Trading allowance: The first £1,000 of gross trading income in a tax year, below which there is nothing to register and nothing to file.
Travel fee: A charge for the escort's journey, agreed in advance and separate from the hourly rate.
Triple-site testing: Testing for chlamydia and gonorrhoea at throat, rectum and urethra or urine rather than at one site only. Recommended for people involved in sex work.

U

UK GDPR: The United Kingdom's data protection regime. Requires a privacy notice wherever personal data is collected, including by email.

V

VAT threshold: £90,000 of taxable turnover in a rolling twelve-month period, above which registration is compulsory.

The legal terms are set out at length on escorting and UK law, and the tax terms on tax and self-employment.