Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a new offence of intentional trespass to tackle unlawful traveller encampments.

Potential measures to criminalise the act of trespassing when setting up an unauthorised encampment in England and Wales were announced in the December 2019 Queen’s Speech for inclusion in the Police Powers and Protection Bill.

On 5 November 2019, the Government launched a consultation seeking views on how best to strengthen police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments - https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-police-powers-to-tackle-unauthorised-encampments. This consultation closed on the 5 March. I will announce the outcome of this consultation in due course.