The Vagrancy Act (1824) was initially designed to combat concerns over people wandering the country looking for work, and soldiers returning wounded from the Napoleonic wars.

While the Act’s use has fallen since 2014, it has still been implemented with different police forces using the Act to differing degrees. The formal application of the Act has led to continued prosecutions, but the informal use and threat of prosecution under the Act continues to send people further away from the support they need.

Charities and campaigners have long argued that this does nothing to address the causes of why people are forced to beg or sleep rough, and pushes them further away from support and often into danger.

The UK Government has now announced it will be commencing repeal of the Act via the Crime and Policing Bill currently before the UK Parliament.

Homelessness charity Crisis described the announcement as a “landmark moment that will change lives” and prevent thousands of people from being pushed away from safety and support.

Crisis has long campaigned for an end to this law. It has worked with organisations across the housing, homelessness and human rights sectors, and alongside police forces, lawyers and parliamentarians in parliaments in Westminster and Cardiff Bay.

This campaigning led both Houses of the Westminster Parliament to vote to repeal the Act in 2022, with clear support for its repeal in Wales’ Senedd and from the Welsh Government. The repeal was included in the UK Government’s 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. However, the government at the time insisted that it could not be fully implemented until replacement powers were in place. The new UK Government’s determination to set a date for repeal will finally bring about the end of the Act in England and Wales.​

Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said: “This is a landmark moment that will change lives and prevent thousands of people from being pushed into the shadows, away from safety.

“For 200 years, the Vagrancy Act has meant that people who are homeless are treated as criminals and second-class citizens. It has punished people for trying to stay safe and done nothing to address why people become homeless in the first place.

“Ending the use of the Vagrancy Act recognises a shameful history of persecuting people for poverty and destitution, something that figures like William Wilberforce and Winston Churchill warned against in their opposition to the Act.

“It is of great credit to the UK Government that they have shown such principled leadership in scrapping this pernicious Act. We hope this signals a completely different approach to helping people forced onto the streets and clears the way for a positive agenda that is about supporting people who desperately want to move on in life and fulfil their potential. We look forward to assisting the UK Government with their forthcoming homelessness strategy to do exactly that.”

With the Act set for repeal next Spring, Crisis is calling for a focus on delivering increased and improved support and outreach services to help link people rough sleeping and/ or begging into support services and stable housing. It is also calling for the implementation of more trauma-informed approaches from police and criminal justice services that consider why people are on the streets. This will help tackle anti-social behaviour.

Recent UK Government statistics show the number of people sleeping rough across England is now 91% higher than it was three years ago and more than double than when data collection began in 2010. The number of people forced to sleep rough in London from January to March 2025 was 4,427 – an 8% rise from the same period last year. The number of people considered to be ‘living on the streets’ of London reached record levels from January to March 2025, rising 38% from the same period last year (511) to 706 people.