Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential implications of his Department's Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, published on 27 March 2023, on police treatment of rough sleepers.

The Government has been clear that it does not want to criminalise rough sleeping and is working with across Departments to repeal and replace the Vagrancy Act 1824 as outlined within the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan. The implications of the replacement Vagrancy Act measures are being taken into account through consideration of the responses to the public consultation run by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities last year, and our wider stakeholder engagement.

Monitoring and evaluation of the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan will be important in understanding whether we are delivering the action plan effectively and that it is achieving the intended outcomes and impacts in tackling ASB across a range of funded measures.