Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government when they expect to commence the
relevant provisions in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts
Act 2022 that repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office () (Con)
My Lords, as we made clear at the time of the PCSC Act and as was
recently set out in the Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action
Plan, we will repeal the Vagrancy Act when suitable replacement
legislation is brought forward. This will be done at the earliest
parliamentary opportunity.
(Non-Afl)
My Lords, the delay in commencing the repeal of the Vagrancy Act
has left this matter unresolved for more than a year. In that
time, more than 1,000 vulnerable people have been arrested under
its provisions. The plans the Minister refers to recriminalise
homelessness through new anti-social behaviour legislation and
are contrary to the principles established in the Government’s
rough sleeping initiative. That is, in effect, the Vagrancy Act
by the back door. When will the Government move past
criminalisation as a response to homelessness and offer genuine,
workable support measures? When will they finally repeal the
Vagrancy Act?
(Con)
My Lords, at the start of the year the Home Office was asked to
take forward provisions to repeal and replace the Vagrancy Act,
as the noble Baroness has referred to. That builds on the Lords
amendment to the PCSC Act 2022 to repeal the Vagrancy Act once
replacement offences have been considered. That amendment
received support across parties in both the Lords and the
Commons. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
remains the policy lead on homelessness and rough sleeping. We
are working closely with that department to determine the
replacement legislation. That legislation is not ready yet. An
extensive action plan for anti-social behaviour has been
published, which goes into significant mitigations for
homelessness. As soon as parliamentary time allows, we will do
this.
(CB)
My Lords, between 1964 and 1969 capital punishment was not used.
It was allowed to fall into non-use. Could we do the same with
the Vagrancy Act, which is one of the most heinous crimes because
it turns homeless people into criminals?
(Con)
My Lords, the Government do not collect figures on the police
usage of the Vagrancy Act and as the police are operationally
independent, we cannot comment on figures. The Ministry of
Justice figures on prosecution show that it is a very small
number of people. There were four prosecutions for sleeping out
in 2021 and 459 prosecutions for begging in 2021.
(LD)
My Lords, this is a very important piece of legislation which the
Government are seeking to provide. Can the Minister give us an
assurance that the Bill, or whatever the legislation is, will be
delivered and completed by the next general election?
(Con)
I cannot give that assurance but, as I said, last year we
consulted on options for replacement legislation, along with
other stakeholder engagement, and we are considering those
complex issues carefully. The Government will publish responses
to the Vagrancy Act consultation in due course. As soon as
parliamentary time allows, that legislation will appear in front
of your Lordships.
(Lab)
My Lords, what is the Government’s approach to commencement
orders more generally? There was an engagement in your Lordships’
House last week about the non-commencement of journalists’
protection in the Public Order Act. Do the Minister and the
Government understand that to delay commencement indefinitely,
and thus to thwart the will of Parliament, is an unlawful abuse
of power?
(Con)
Of course, commencement is not really within the spirit of the
Question, but I understand where the noble Baroness is coming
from. There was no suggestion that commencement would be delayed
indefinitely under the circumstances to which she refers.
(CB)
My Lords, the various charities which campaigned for this change,
led by Crisis, were deeply grateful for the amendment your
Lordships passed which led to this legislative change. But a year
on from the Government agreeing to legislate accordingly, we do
not have that commencement. We do have the Anti-Social Behaviour
Action Plan, which seems to be mostly about a rather penal
attitude towards people begging. It does contain some positive
comments about new powers—I am not sure whether there will be new
money too—to help people who are currently homeless and in need
of extra support. Can we hear a little more about the positive
aspects of what the Government are attempting to do? In the
meantime, can we abolish this piece of legislation before its
200th anniversary?
(Con)
I am happy to give a bit more detail on the positive aspects of
this. So far, we have invested up to £500 million through our
flagship rough sleeping initiative 2022-25 so that local
authorities can provide tailored support to end rough sleeping.
We have launched the £200 million single homelessness
accommodation programme, which will deliver up to 2,400 homes for
vulnerable people sleeping rough or at risk of rough sleeping. In
addition to the 6,000 homes being delivered by rough sleeping
accommodation programmes, we have committed £42 million of
funding since 2018 towards the subregional Housing First pilots
in various regions. We have also committed up to £186.5 million
in funding for substance misuse treatment services.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for those statistics and for his
assurance of an eventual commitment to no one being criminalised
simply for having nowhere to live. Is he aware of the Ministry of
Justice data which shows that people released from prison to
homelessness are over 50% more likely to offend within a year?
What more is being done to ensure that prison leavers have a home
on release?
(Con)
I cannot specifically answer as regards all prison leavers. I
know that a lot of work is being done with the rehabilitation of
drug addicts in an effort to prevent recidivism. I will come back
to the right reverend Prelate with more detail, if I can find
it.
(Lab)
My Lords, the 1824 Act makes reference to “idle and disorderly”
persons, “rogues and vagabonds”. I would be grateful if the
Minister could confirm that this is not a reference to
Conservative Peers. The 2019 manifesto committed the party
opposite to ending rough sleeping by 2024, yet it continues to
rise. It is up by 74% in the last 10 years and may be up by a
quarter in the last year. What do the Government intend to do to
reverse this trend?
(Con)
The noble Lord is a magistrate. I will not comment on his first
point, other to say that I am sure most of my colleagues would
prefer not to appear in front of him. The statistics he gives are
not quite as bad as he made them sound. The numbers are much
lower than when homelessness peaked in 2017. Although there was a
slight spike last year, they are significantly below previous
peak levels.
(Lab)
My Lords, is it not a bit rough for the Government to massively
increase the number of homeless people in this country and then
do nothing to stop them being arrested?
(Con)
I think I have already answered questions around this particular
line of inquiry.
(LD)
My Lords, I have listened carefully to the Minister’s replies to
all the questions so far. I am still none the wiser as to why the
Government are not delivering the repeal of the Vagrancy Act. It
should have been repealed. I do not understand what is stopping
the Government moving forward.
(Con)
My Lords, as noble Lords know and as I have tried to explain, we
are hard at work on coming up with a suitable replacement, which
is not a like-for-like replacement of the Vagrancy Act in its
current form. But it is right that the police, local authorities
and so on have the tools that they need to respond effectively to
begging and rough sleeping. That work is ongoing.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister said two or three times that one of the
factors is as soon as parliamentary time becomes available. We
are already in an inordinately long Session, with no date yet
announced for when it will end and when the King’s Speech will
be. So is it not a pretty lame excuse to say that it is just a
matter of finding parliamentary time? What we really need to see
is the Government getting their act together.
(Con)
I shall pass on the noble Lord’s comments.
(Con)
My noble friend the Minister said that it is important to think
about what could possibly replace the Vagrancy Act. Could he
enlighten us about the thinking on why there needs to be a
replacement, rather than purely repealing it?
(Con)
It is felt that certain other types of activity associated with
vagrancy should be looked into, including things such as nuisance
and organised begging.
(Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the Vagrancy Act 1824 was
introduced because many soldiers who had fought in the Napoleonic
Wars had no employment and resorted to begging? As far as I know,
from our recent war in Iraq, no vagrants are now begging. Does
the Minister not think that he ought to catch up with what has
happened in the last 200 years?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for the history lesson.
(Lab)
My Lords, can the Minister explain why the Government need to
spend an inordinate amount of time looking at what to replace the
Vagrancy Act with, having said that they will rescind it? Why
will they not spend a similar amount of time on EU
regulations?
(Con)
That is well beyond the scope of this Question, but I am sure
that everyone will have heard the noble Lord’s point.
