Margo MacDonald MSP said her bill would help to end the conflict between prostitutes and the people who live in the areas where they operate.

It has also been claimed that the move could help to cut the number of attacks on women working on the street.

An unofficial tolerance zone in Edinburgh was abandoned last year and since then there has been a marked increase in the number of attacks on women.

Do you think prostitution tolerance zones are a good idea?

This Talking Point has now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

In Holland they have the infamous red light zones, where it is legalised, with no street walking and even tourists (very strange to see a group of pensioners being taken on a guided tour). There are strict rules and generally these areas are some of the safest in the Amsterdam. You also get some very nice houses and flats around the area so someone must not object.
Stu, UK/Nederland

This zone is more likely to be located where there is poverty. The mentality that it is ok if people suffering are the poor and not so if you happen to live in a well to do area. It seems to me that this is part of social engineering to keep certain group of people in a perpetual state of moral degradation and ill education.
John, UK

Just legalise it for heaven's sake. As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, who cares? This whole pathetic culture of prohibition of things middle England find distasteful is sad and childish. There will always be prostitution, there will always be porn, there will always be drugs, there will always be gambling and sadly there will always pious old fools who think they have some right to tell people how to live their lives.
John, England

The politicians should rather think about how to minimise the number of prostitutes and about their endangered health

Tanja Stoderegger, Austria

The politicians should rather think about how to minimise the number of prostitutes and about their endangered health. It will be a big problem to find a location where these prostitutes tolerance zone will be created, because for sure nobody will want to have them in their neighbourhood.
Tanja Stoderegger, Austria

Anything which makes prostitution safer for both prostitutes and their clients and uncouples prostitution from organised crime and drugs is to be welcomed.
Tom, England

Tolerance zones are a great idea expect for all those who have to live within the zone!
Theresa, Scotland

The Mayor of Madrid has forced prostitutes into a city park, out of the way, which has offered them a so-called safe haven. This has produced a huge increase in attacks on prostitutes, many of whom come to Spain with the promise of a better life but have been subsequently forced "on the game" by the mafia. This proposal offers no solution to the safety or health issues of prostitutes. A case of out of sight out of mind, perhaps?
Ed, UK (Madrid), Spain

What happens to the people who live on the fringe of one of these areas?

Andrew H, England

Hmmm. All very well, but what happens to the people who live on the fringe of one of these areas, or even within one? Constant coming and going, drugs, wronged boyfriends, fights, all the things that accompany prostitution. Not convinced.
Andrew H, England

If tolerance zones are such a good idea why don't they put them outside the Scottish Parliament? I personally think the law should be changed to give prostitutes protection within the law instead of tolerance zones.
Bruce Burt, Scotland

Let's call them Vital Zones. Vice Zones is not a appropriate name. That shows a reluctant acceptance of a necessary evil. Governments should also do something to enhance the prestige of prostitutes as professionals and as human beings.
Agha Ata, USA

These "zones" may be a start at improving things for women

Frank Morris, UK

Prostitution will continue, regardless of the laws, as long as there's demand for it. These "zones" may be a start at improving things for the women who do it, but how about legalising it in a similar way to Australia? Brothels are legal, streetwalking is not - and streetwalking is hardly going to be a safe venture, when you're dealing with criminals.
Frank Morris, UK

From a woman's point of view I think prostitutes are plying an honest trade. However, with prostitution comes the ancillary problem of drugs, crime and illegality. To this end, legalised red light districts always boil down to the same old gripes: good in theory, but not on my doorstep.
GML, London

Why has it taken so long for these zones, they should have been there a long time ago to protect the girls.
Martin, UK

Follow the German's policy of legalisation

Doug Cheyne, Scotland

The oldest profession will not vanish no matter what anti-laws are brought to bear on the prostitutes or the people who use their services. Rather follow the German's policy of legalisation, with purpose built flats, and the women who wish to use these flats be subject to a monthly examination by a doctor to obtain a clean certificate. Also they are forced to pay tax on their earnings. By this method, the prostitutes would have police protection and the customers would have disease free sex.
Doug Cheyne, Scotland

Vice areas already exist unofficially in scruffy and quiet areas. To formally accept that and create official areas seems a victory for common sense over muddled morality. It seems less of a harmful crime than speeding, which many people do. Long term, how about these women starting to pay taxes?
Barry B, UK

I think tolerance zones do make things safer

Chris Collins, UK

I sympathise with the risks prostitutes take on the streets every day, and I think tolerance zones do make things safer for them. Also if people not interested in 'sex for money' know about the times and areas which the tolerance zones exist, we can all do our best to avoid them, but that gets hard if you live there!
Chris Collins, UK