Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent meetings with charities supporting rough sleepers to discuss the introduction of new fines for rough sleepers.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities lead on homelessness and rough sleeping and as such have regular meetings with stakeholders. DLUHC consulted on replacing the outdated Vagrancy Act last year and undertook extensive engagement at this time.
The Home Office has additionally engaged with police, local authorities, PCCs and other organisations on this topic.
The Vagrancy Act 1824 criminalises begging and some forms of rough sleeping and the Government agreed in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 to repeal this outdated legislation and replace it with a package fit for modern usage.
We outlined those plans in the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan published by this Government in March this year.
Details on future legislation will be set out in due course.