Police using 200-year old legislation to arrest hundreds of children for rough sleeping

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

Data uncovered by Layla Moran and the Liberal Democrats through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that police forces across the country have arrested 433 children over the last 5 years using the Vagrancy Act.

The FOI asked police forces how many under 18’s had been arrested and charged under the Vagrancy Act over the last 5 years.

Of the 43 forces in the UK, 20 had arrested children. The worst offender was the Metropolitan Police Force in London, which has arrested 152 children in the last 5 years.

One police force, Derbyshire, arrested a 13 year old.

The Vagrancy Act is a piece of 200-year-old legislation which makes it a criminal offence to sleep rough. 

In 2022 campaigners succeeded in repealing the legislation in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, but the repeal is yet to come into force in practice. The government claim they need “appropriate replacement legislation” before the repeal comes into force. A public consultation into replacement measures closed in May 2022, but the findings have not yet been published.

Responding to the findings Layla Moran MP said:

“This is a truly shocking revelation. It is heart-breaking that vulnerable young people are being arrested with this cruel legislation created after the Battle of Waterloo.

“Every day that the Vagrancy Act remains on the statute books, young people are under the threat of arrest simply because they don’t have a place to sleep. This archaic, Dickensian legislation should have been consigned to history long ago.

“It is time for the government to make good on their promise, repeal the Vagrancy Act, and treat rough sleepers with compassion, rather than criminalisation.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors 

The FOI data can be viewed here