Naturism Resources

This page is a miscellaneous collection of links to web pages which will be useful references. Please let us know about any suggestions or corrections. This page does not have links to BN documents concerning these issues. They are listed on the Briefings Page.

• The Naturist Society has a comprehensive bibliography compiled by Mark Storey.

• Defra Managing Coastal Activities, A Guide for Local Authorities. Much good advice that will be useful to anyone managing outdoor spaces of any sort.
  • The main document
  • The revised appendix
• Beaches
  • An example of good practice. National Trust beach at Studland.
  • April 2013 - Complaints have fallen dramatically and the Naturist Area extended. BBC report.

• Children and Young People
  • Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.—Why the Difference? Advocates for Youth (A USA not-for-profit)
  • Naturist children and body confidence etc. Summary of some of the research.
  • Why do we think nudity is shocking for children?
• Swimming pools. Sooner or later a council is going to cause an outbreak of infectious disease and end up on the wrong end of a major legal action as a result of their attitude to nudity and showering.
  • Advice on Cryptosporidium updated. Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group.
  • Cryptosporidium Sheffield City Council.
• Sleeping
  • 6 Reasons You Should Sleep Naked. Cosmopolitan.
• Vitamin D
  • Manchester United have installed special UV booths so that their players get sufficient Vitamin D - as reported in a Harvard Business Study.
  • multiple sclerosis and Vitamin D Reports that it cuts the incidence by 80%.
• Body Image
  • Male v Female, a telling photograph
  • Our men never see us naked.The Sun. How poor body-self-image is adversely affecting women.
  • Young Girl Talks About Her Body Image Issues. YNA. How Naturism helped.

• Nudity, Modesty and Culture From a Christian perspective but of wide applicability. An excellent series of articles.

• David Cameron's porn filter idea is ridiculous and will fail. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales described David Cameron's porn filter plans as absolutely ridiculous.

• Open Rights Group. An individual supporters membership organisation. Looks like it also coordinates the work of a number of interested organisations. We have only just found out about them and are going to make contact (Nov 2011).
• Media Watch Watch. Poking fun at the idiocy and hypocrisy of many people and organisations keen on censorship.
• Moral Guardians

• European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Human Rights Act (HRA).

  The Minsitry of Justice provides a page of links. Of particular interest are:

  • A Guide to the Human Rights Act 1998: Third Edition
  • Study Guide
• Equality Act guidance. The Act starts coming into force from 1 October 2010.
  • Individuals should look at:
    • "Guidance for Service Users". A service is just about anything provided by anyone or anything which is not clearly social or domestic. It includes business, local authority, charity, and most association activity.
    • "Guidance for Workers".
  • Clubs should look at:
    • "Guidance for Service Providers". We do not know of any clubs that are not subject to these requirements.
    • "Guidance for Employers" if the club employs anyone.
    • "Guidance for Service Users" if the club is treated unfairly by a business, charity, local authority or indeed just about anyone.

  It may also be useful to look at the guidance from the other point of view. For example for a worker to look at the employer guidance.

• Equality Act - What is a belief?
  • Climate change and the imperative to do something about it.
  • Animal rights Hunt saboteur and other activism.

  Solicitor, Shah Qureshi, of Bindmans, said "It sends a clear signal that employers cannot discriminate against people merely because they disagree with their deeply held beliefs."

• UK Statutes from the last couple of hundred years. The "Revised" set is probably the part you need.
• It is fundamentally unjust if the only way to find out what the law says is to pay a lawyer large amounts of money. Most of the legal databases are subscription only. The British and Irish Legal Information Institute database is not as good as is desirable, we have failed to find an important case, but at least it is free.
• Arrest shouldn't ever be a problem and we have excellent relations with many police forces but there are some deeply prejudiced officers and they all wear the same uniform. Most of the advice on these pages is applicable to any arrest.
• Hunt Saboteurs
• No comment - The defendants guide to arrest. Legal Defence and Monitoring Group. A more recent summary.
• Urban 75

Remember, the object of an arrest is conviction, not justice. Unless a solicitor (preferably not the duty solicitor) advises otherwise say nothing apart from establishing who you are.

Naturism is legal in a much wider range of circumstances than many lawyers, police and CPS can believe but it is too complex to go into here.

If arrested under no circumstances say anything to the police without advice from the duty solicitor and then only with great caution. See s.6(4) of Public Order Act 1986 for an example of why. Do not accept a caution or anything similar without consulting with us first. We can not provide legal advice but we can help you to ask your lawyer the right questions.

There is no offence of nudity and indecent exposure is misleading slang. The archaic Victorian offences were all repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the replacement, which was specifically designed to protect Naturists, is called "Exposure". All of the following have been used or threatened.

• These offences require intent to cause things such as fear, alarm or distress.
  • s.4 Public Order Act 1986. Fear or provocation of violence.
  • s.4A Public Order Act 1986. Intentional harassment, alarm or distress
  • s.66 Sexual Offences Act 2003. Exposure
• Offences not requiring intent to upset someone:
  • s.5 and s.6(4) Public Order Act 1986. Read both links. Section five is inherently vulnerable to abuse, it is abused in all sorts of ways, and it has no place on the statute book of a country that places any value on civil liberties. We are not alone in our low opinion of section five. There is a long list of people and organisations who share it. Here's a couple of links.
  • Reform Section Five
  • Rowan Atkinson on s.5.
• Outraging Public Decency. (Common Law)
  • The Law Explored: indecent exposure The Times.
  • R v Hamilton. Times Law. Definition of "public". NB definition of public varies according to the law in question.
• Public Nuisance. (Common Law)

Naturists are just as entitled to protection by the law as anyone else. There is an enormous list of possible laws but these are ones that we have come across which seem particularly relevant. When reporting something to the police make clear that it was a "hate crime" and that you are making a formal complaint. Make sure you get a crime number.

• Direct threat, harassment, insult etc
  • s.4 Public Order Act 1986. 4 Fear or provocation of violence.
  • s.4A Public Order Act 1986. Intentional harassment, alarm or distress
  • s.5 and s.6(4) Public Order Act 1986. Harassment, alarm or distress.
  • s.67, 68 Sexual Offenses Act 2003. Voyeurism.
• Promoting activities, for example public place sexual activity, at places where we will probably get the blame:
  • Conspiracy to Outrage Public Decency (Common Law).
  • Conspiracy applies to most every offence so numerous others.
  • ACPO Guidance on Policing Public Sex Environments Many constabularies have their own publication.

• Charity offering help with planning issues.

• The Bare Pit. Entertaining comic strips with many thought provoking items. Useful for much more than just entertainment. Please send us links to any strips which it would be useful to link to directly.