Vagrancy Act 1824

The act was enacted to deal with the increasing numbers of homeless and penniless urban poor in England and Wales. Following the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Industrial Revolution, implementation of the Corn Laws, and inclosure acts, thousands of people had been forced off the land. Destitute people gravitated to the expanding urban areas in the hope of finding employment. == Offences ==

Punishment for the wide definition of vagrancy (including prostitution) was up to one month's hard labour. The act was amended several times, most notably by the Vagrancy Act 1838, which introduced a number of new public order offences covering acts that were deemed at the time to be likely to cause moral outrage. It contained a provision for the prosecution of "every Person wilfully exposing to view, in any Street ... or public Place, any obscene Print, Picture, or other indecent Exhibition". Although the act originally applied only to England and Wales, section 4 of the act, which dealt mainly with vagrancy and begging, was extended to Scotland and Ireland by section 15 of the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871. Part of this section was repealed (in England and Wales only) by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912, extended provisions of the Vagrancy Act 1824 to Scotland and Ireland, and suppressed brothels. ==Current status==

The original Vagrancy Act 1824 remains in force in England and Wales. The entire act was repealed in Scotland by the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. An attempt was made in 1981 to repeal section 4 (and so, in effect, decriminalise begging and homelessness) in England and Wales, but the bill (the Vagrancy Offences (Repeal) Bill) did not progress beyond first reading. In Ireland, section 18 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990 repealed section 4 of the 1824 act (begging and vagrancy). Under the act discharged military personnel continue to be granted exemption certificates allowing them to appeal for alms under certain circumstances. In June 2025, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, announced plans to repeal the 1824 act within one year. == Modern use ==

In 1988 some 573 people were prosecuted and convicted under the act in England and Wales, rising to 1,396 by 1989. In May 1990 the National Association of Probation Officers carried out a survey of prosecutions under the act. That survey revealed that 1,250 prosecutions had been dealt with in 14 magistrates courts in Central London in 1988, which represented an enormous leap in the number of prosecutions under the act, especially in London. In 2014 three men were arrested and charged under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 for stealing food that had been put in skips and bins outside an Iceland supermarket in Kentish Town, North London. Paul May, William James and Jason Chan were due to stand trial after allegedly taking cheese, tomatoes and cakes worth £33 from bins behind the shop. The Iceland chain denied any involvement in contacting the police, and in a public statement it questioned why the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) felt that it was in the public interest to pursue a case against the three individuals. The three men, all of no fixed address, were due to attend a hearing at Highbury Magistrates' Court on 3 February 2014. However, before that date the CPS announced its decision to drop the case, stating that it felt it had not given due weight to the public interest factors tending against prosecution. In 2020, 573 people were prosecuted under the act and calls for reform of the law in England increased, with pressure placed on Government by homelessness campaigners, members of parliament and other NGOs. This led to comments from some senior figures in the UK Government that the act should be repealed. In April 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 was enacted and given royal assent. It contains a provision that would repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824, but this provision must be brought into force by the Secretary of State. At the time, the government stated it did not intend to commence this repealing provision until appropriate replacement legislation is passed. In 2023, the number of prosecutions fell to 79. Following the 2024 General Election, the government stated that the Vagrancy Act 1824 will be repealed regardless of whether or not replacement legislation is passed. == See also ==