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The UK government announced on Monday that it plans to scrap a Georgian-era law that made “rough sleeping” a criminal offense.
The official statement promised to abolish the 200-year-old statute by spring of next year.
“We are drawing a line under nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society,” Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said. “No one should ever be criminalised simply for sleeping rough and by scrapping this cruel and outdated law, we are making sure that can never happen again.”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 Vagrancy Act was introduced in 1824 in response to rising homelessness rates in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and Industrial Revolution. Under the act, convictions for rough sleeping — sleeping in the street — or begging can attract fines of up to £1,000 and occasionally imprisonment.
The UK Parliament voted to repeal the act in April 2022, but enacting the repeal was delayed until the government brought in replacement legislation and the law continued in force. Single Homeless Project, a UK charity, reported that between April 2022 and June 2024, 177 people were arrested under the law.
The Minister for Homelessness Rushanara Ali agreed that the act was “neither just nor fit for purpose” and said government efforts going forwards would focus on the root causes of homelessness.
The government has pledged to introduce new offenses of facilitating begging for gain and trespassing with the intention of committing a crime, which aim to crack down on organized begging facilitated by criminal gangs. It also committed to increasing funding for homelessness services by an additional £233 million this financial year.
UK-based homelessness charities including Crisis and St Mungo’s have welcomed the act’s repeal. St Mungo’s CEO Emma Haddad commented, “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 post UK to decriminalize rough sleeping appeared first on JURIST - News.
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The official statement promised to abolish the 200-year-old statute by spring of next year.
“We are drawing a line under nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society,” Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said. “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 Vagrancy Act was introduced in 1824 in response to rising homelessness rates in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and Industrial Revolution. Under the act, convictions for rough sleeping — sleeping in the street — or begging can attract fines of up to £1,000 and occasionally imprisonment.
The UK Parliament voted to repeal the act in April 2022, but enacting the repeal was delayed until the government brought in replacement legislation and the law continued in force. Single Homeless Project, a UK charity, reported that between April 2022 and June 2024, 177 people were arrested under the law.
The Minister for Homelessness Rushanara Ali agreed that the act was “neither just nor fit for purpose” and said government efforts going forwards would focus on the root causes of homelessness.
The government has pledged to introduce new offenses of facilitating begging for gain and trespassing with the intention of committing a crime, which aim to crack down on organized begging facilitated by criminal gangs. It also committed to increasing funding for homelessness services by an additional £233 million this financial year.
UK-based homelessness charities including Crisis and St Mungo’s have welcomed the act’s repeal. St Mungo’s CEO Emma Haddad commented, “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 post UK to decriminalize rough sleeping appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.