PROSTITUTES in Glasgow are being prosecuted in far greater numbers than those working in other parts of Scotland, despite an apparently dramatic drop in the number of people being taken to court for soliciting.

Figures obtained by The Herald show Glasgow prostitutes account for more than 82% of all cases brought in Scotland under section 46 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act, which covers soliciting.

In 1996, the latest year for which statistics are available, 432 prostitutes were taken to court in Scotland, 355 of those from Glasgow. In Dundee, the same year, there were only two prosecutions.

Just over three-quarters of all those convicted were fined, with the average fine for a Glasgow prostitute put at #139, compared to #123 across Scotland as a whole.

Just one year earlier, however, almost twice as many people - 761 - were prosecuted for soliciting in Scotland; 651 of them from Glasgow.

Whatever the cause of the drop in overall numbers, analysts say the disparity in prosecution rates raises crucial questions about policing and broader attitudes across the country.

''Prostitution in Edinburgh is not as visible because it is not on the streets, but that is not a particularly good reason to be coming down with a heavier hand and to be arresting and fining so many more women in Glasgow, because the legal situation is the same,'' said one senior academic, who did not want to be named.

''If a woman is being fined because she's a prostitute, there is only one way in which she can raise the money and that is to work.''

The vast majority of Glasgow's prostitutes are drug addicts and many cannot afford to meet the fines, ending up serving time in prison for non-payment.

''The fines are terrible in Glasgow,'' said Mary, a 24-year-old prostitute who has worked in the city's red-light area for six years.

''It used to be only #50, now I have had #150 or #250. This is every single time, every six to eight weeks you are getting it.

''I don't pay fines. I'm a drug addict so I end up doing time.

''I had six fines outstanding and guess what I did for that? Eight and a half months in Cornton Vale. I'm never out of the place.

''I have only been in once for a conviction and all the other times it's been for my fines. But I can't pay them.''

The development comes as the Government prepares to publish a report into the imprisonment of women in Scotland.

The Fairweather/Skinner report was commissioned by Scottish Prisons Minister Henry McLeish after a spate of suicides at Cornton Vale women's prison near Stirling. It is expected to recommend that far fewer women are jailed.