St Mungo’s welcomes the Government’s decision to repeal the outdated Vagrancy Act 1824 by Spring next year, to ensure rough sleeping is no longer a criminal offence.
Emma Haddad, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said: “The repeal of the Vagrancy Act, which criminalises rough sleeping, cannot come soon enough.
Right now, we are supporting thousands of people who are rough sleeping; everyone facing this issue has their own heart breaking story to tell of how they ended up on the streets – from complex mental and physical health issues to an increasingly unaffordable housing market.
The answer is not to criminalise people for living on the streets but instead to focus on tackling the health, housing and wider societal issues that are causing homelessness in the first place.”
The Vagrancy Act was introduced in 1824 – towards the end of the Georgian era – to deal with rising homelessness which increased after the Napoleonic Wars and Industrial Revolution.
While use of the Act against rough sleeping has significantly declined over the years, it remains enforceable in law.
Government amendments to the Home Office’s Crime and Policing Bill will instead focus on crimes associated with begging and trespassing and not rough sleeping, with no replacement of previous legislation that criminalised people for simply sleeping rough.
New targeted measures will ensure police have the powers they need to keep communities safe – filling the gap left over by removing previous powers.
This will include a new offence of facilitating begging for gain and an offence of trespassing with the intention of committing a crime, both of which were previously included under the 1824 Act.
The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: “We are drawing a line under nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society, who deserve dignity and support.
No one should ever be criminalised simply for sleeping rough and by scrapping this cruel and outdated law, we are making sure that can never happen again.”
The Minister for Homelessness Rushanara Ali said: “Today marks a historic shift in how we’re responding to the rough sleeping crisis, by repealing an archaic Act that is neither just nor fit for purpose.
Scrapping the Vagrancy Act for good is another step forward in our mission to tackle homelessness in all its forms, by focusing our efforts on its root causes.”
