Is dogging legal?

Is dogging legal? The short answer

Dogging itself isn’t named in any law, but the things that happen at a dogging site – sex or exposure where members of the public could see – can be criminal offences in the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Simply parking in a car park at night isn’t a crime anywhere. The laws are aimed at sexual activity or exposure in a place where other people might see it, and most of them care about one thing above all: whether someone who didn’t choose to be involved could be shocked, offended, alarmed or distressed. That’s why the details – where you are, what time it is, and who else is around – make all the difference.

This page explains the main laws country by country. It’s general information to help you understand the risks, not legal advice, and the law can change.

Is dogging illegal in the UK?

There’s no specific offence of dogging in the UK, but people who have sex where the public might see them can be prosecuted under several different laws, and the rules differ between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

England and Wales: outraging public decency

The offence most likely to apply is an old common-law one called outraging public decency. It covers any lewd act done in a public place where it could be seen by two or more people who are actually there. Crucially, it doesn’t matter whether anyone actually saw it – only that they could have. Because it’s a common-law offence, there’s no fixed maximum sentence.

Prosecutors can also use section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, which deals with behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

England and Wales: the Sexual Offences Act 2003

People often search for the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in connection with dogging, but it doesn’t contain a general offence of having sex in public. Two of its sections are relevant:

• Section 66, exposure: intentionally exposing your genitals, intending that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress. The maximum sentence is two years in prison.
• Section 71, sexual activity in a public lavatory: any sexual activity in a public toilet, whether or not anyone sees it. The maximum is six months in prison, a fine, or both.

Because section 66 requires an intention to cause alarm or distress, it’s aimed at a different kind of behaviour from consenting adults watching each other – but a passer-by who didn’t want to see anything is another matter.

Scotland

Scotland has its own common-law crime of public indecency, formerly known as shameless indecency. It was renamed after a 2005 High Court judgment and covers indecent conduct that offends against public morals. Scotland also has a statutory offence of sexual exposure under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, which applies where someone exposes themselves in a sexual way to a person who hasn’t consented – for sexual gratification, or to humiliate, distress or alarm them.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008. Like the law in England and Wales, it includes a specific offence of sexual activity in a public lavatory.

Can you get arrested for dogging?

Yes – if police believe an offence is being committed, they can arrest you, although in the UK arrest has not usually been the first response.

By 2010, guidance from the Association of Chief Police Officers treated arrest as a last resort for public sex. Police involvement often starts with a complaint: as far back as 2003, Somerset police were responding to complaints about sexual encounters at Ham Hill Country Park.

A conviction can have serious consequences. In England and Wales, a conviction for exposure under section 66 puts an adult on the sex offenders register if the person who saw it was under 18, or if the sentence is a prison term or community order of at least 12 months. That’s one more reason to make sure nobody who isn’t part of it – and certainly no child – could ever see what’s going on.

Public sex environments (PSEs)

In the UK, police use the term public sex environment – or PSE – for any open space, public or private, that people regularly use for consensual sex.

That covers the places this site is about: parks, woodland, car parks and lay-bys known as dogging or cruising grounds, and public toilets. National police guidance on policing PSEs was agreed by chief constables in 2009, and forces such as Kent, Sussex and Norfolk publish their own policies on them.

What those policies have in common is a proportionate approach. Police are often aware of where their local PSEs are, and rather than relying on enforcement, they tend to act when there’s a complaint – with the aim of stopping the activity at the time and place that caused it. Kent Police’s policy says enforcement alone is unlikely to work, and puts the emphasis on working with councils and community groups. The guidance also treats people who use PSEs as potential victims who need protecting, including from hate crime – and some forces use plain-clothes officers partly for that reason.

In practice, that means police are often more lenient at a well-known site where nobody has complained. But it doesn’t make anything legal: the offences above still apply at a PSE, and a complaint from a member of the public can change the police response overnight.

Is cottaging illegal in the UK?

Yes. Sexual activity in a public toilet is a specific offence in England and Wales under section 71 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and in Northern Ireland under the 2008 Order, regardless of whether anyone else sees it.

Ireland

Ireland has a law that names public sex directly. Section 45 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 makes it an offence to have sexual intercourse or to masturbate in a public place – anywhere the public can go, whether by right or with permission.

The same section also covers offensive conduct of a sexual nature likely to cause fear, distress or alarm to anyone who is, or could reasonably be expected to be, aware of it. The maximum penalty is two years in prison and a fine.

The United States

There’s no national law on public sex in the US: each state writes its own, and every state has laws against indecent exposure or public lewdness.

The difference matters. Public lewdness generally requires an actual sexual act, while indecent exposure only requires someone to be exposed in public. Penalties range from fines to jail, and some states require people convicted of indecent exposure to register as sex offenders. In Texas, for example, a first conviction doesn’t normally lead to registration, but a repeat conviction does. Because the rules vary so much, check the law in the state you’re in.

Canada

In Canada, section 173 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to wilfully do an indecent act in a public place in the presence of one or more people, or anywhere with the intent to insult or offend someone. Prosecuted in the more serious way, it carries up to two years in prison.

Australia

In Australia, public sex is dealt with by each state and territory, so the offence and the penalty depend on where you are.

In New South Wales, it can be charged as obscene exposure under the Summary Offences Act 1988. Victoria uses its Summary Offences Act 1966, which covers indecent or offensive behaviour in public. In Queensland, the Criminal Code makes indecent acts in a public place an offence with a maximum of two years in prison. The other states and territories have their own versions.

New Zealand

New Zealand’s Summary Offences Act 1981 makes it an offence to intentionally and obscenely expose your genitals in, or within view of, a public place, with a penalty of up to three months in prison or a fine of up to NZ$2,000. Interestingly, the law gives a defence to anyone who can show they had reasonable grounds to believe they wouldn’t be seen. Offensive or disorderly behaviour in or within view of a public place is a separate offence, with a fine of up to NZ$1,000.

Sources: legislation.gov.uk, the Irish Statute Book, Canada’s Justice Laws website, New Zealand Legislation and published legal guides; checked September 2026.

What the laws have in common

Read side by side, these laws share a pattern: what makes public sex a crime is usually the risk that someone who didn’t choose to be involved will see it.

England’s outraging public decency turns on whether two or more people could have seen the act. Ireland’s offensive conduct offence depends on fear, distress or alarm. Canada’s law refers to the presence of other people, and New Zealand lets you argue you reasonably believed no one would see. None of this makes dogging legal, but it explains why discretion matters so much.

If you do go, lower the risk to others – and to yourself:

• Choose remote spots, late at night, well away from homes, schools and playgrounds.
• Stop straight away if anyone who isn’t part of it turns up, and never let a child be anywhere near.
• Never film or photograph anyone: in England and Wales, sharing intimate images of someone without their consent is a crime in its own right.
• Leave nothing behind. Litter is a common cause of complaints about sites.

For the signals, the etiquette and how to find a spot, read our first-timer’s guide and dogging sites explained.