Displaying items by tag: Police and Crime Bill

Thirteen homelessness charities and housing groups made an unprecedented plea to ministers to reconsider the police and crime bill that passed through the Commons this week. It will now go to the House of Lords. They said the bill needs urgent changes to avoid people being arrested and imprisoned for sleeping rough. Traditional Gypsy events like the annual Appleby horse fair face being criminalised, threatening the Gypsy way of life and culture. People will risk fines, imprisonment or confiscation of vehicles, which for Travellers are also their homes. The charities and housing groups said the bill should be scrapped, or amended if it goes ahead. Many people experiencing homelessness sleep in cars; they would be arrested and jailed. An 1824 Vagrancy Act that targeted rough sleeping and begging was abolished, but this new legislation 200 years later would again criminalise them.