THE DISPATCH
HOMELESSNESS
The archaic, offensive and outdated Vagrancy Act, rooted in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, is finally being consigned to history
The Vagrancy Act will be repealed in the government’s new policing bill, spelling the end for the controversial 200-year-old law that makes rough sleeping and begging a criminal offence in England and Wales.
MPs had been set to vote on an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to scrap the Act when it returns to the House of Commons this week. But the government issued its own amendment on February 22 to repeal the law.
The Vagrancy Act came into force in 1824, initially to deal with injured soldiers who returned from the Napoleonic Wars. It is a year since then-housing secretary Robert Jenrick told the Commons the Act should be “consigned to history”.
Jenrick told The Big Issue that in recent weeks he has been lobbying Michael Gove and Priti Patel to urge cabinet ministers to scrap the Act as part of the controversial policing bill.
“This long overdue reform will reframe the issue of homelessness away from it being a question of criminality, and towards our modern understanding of homelessness
