Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans go give additional powers to policing forces to deal with allegations of (a) trespassing and (b) modern slavery and human trafficking, in the context of the commencement of the abolition of the Vagrancy Act 1824.

This Government is repealing the outdated Vagrancy Act and introducing new offences which deal with specific risks.

Repealing the Vagrancy Act 1824 will leave a gap for the police to tackle organised begging and trespassing, which police have highlighted as a particular concern.We have therefore introduced, in the Crime and Policing Bill, a new offence of facilitating begging for gain and a new criminal offence of trespassing with intent to commit a criminal offence.