Time to tax? Prostitution and illegal drugs add £12.27bn to the economy

The Office of National Statistics has added them for the first time to the UKs national accounts and revealed that we spend more on drugs than either alcohol or personal grooming

Britons spend more on illegal drugs than on personal grooming, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. If only, you might think, we stopped getting off our chumps on heroin, crack, amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis, we might realise how terribly groomed we are and get a decent haircut.

This is just one of the intriguing anomalies thrown into relief by the ONSs decision to publish for the first time estimates for the amount of money spent on illegal drugs and prostitution in the UKs national accounts. Prostitution added around £5.65bn to the economy in 2013, and illegal drugs £6.62bn, while hairdressers, salons and other forms of personal grooming contributed £5.8bn to our national output.