This Government is clear that no-one should be criminalised simply for having nowhere to live and sleeping rough. The cross-Government Rough Sleeping Strategy, which was published in August, committed to reviewing homelessness and rough sleeping legislation, including the Vagrancy Act 1824. The Government believes that review of the 1824 Act, rather than immediate wholesale repeal, is the right course of action to ensure the consequences of repeal are fully understood and other options are properly considered.<\/p>
For example, the consequences of repeal on the police\u2019s ability to deal with certain street behaviours and the potential impact of offences under alternative legislation, which might have a higher burden of proof and higher penalties than those under the 1824 Act, would be areas of consideration. Policy officials are currently developing the terms of reference for the review.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4282", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-03-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-03-11T16:52:51.397Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "7"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-02-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Vagrancy Act 1824"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have given consideration to repealing the Vagrancy Act 1824; and whether they consider that prosecuting people for being homeless is appropriate.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/248", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Jones of Cheltenham"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Jones of Cheltenham"} ], "uin" : "HL14099"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1078980", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1078980/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Every person who dies while they do not have a place to call home is one too many and we have a moral duty to act.<\/p>
Whilst we recognise that suitable housing is a key part of the solution, health services have a significant role to play, alongside other public services. My Department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when they need it. In its Long-Term Plan, the National Health Service will invest up to £30 million extra on meeting the needs of rough sleepers, to ensure that the parts of England most affected by rough sleeping will have better access to specialist homelessness NHS mental health support, integrated with existing outreach services.<\/p>
<\/p>
We are also ensuring that when a homeless person dies or is seriously injured as a result of abuse or neglect and there is concern that partner agencies could have worked more effectively to protect the adult, Safeguarding Adult Reviews take place so that local services can learn lessons from these tragic events to better prevent them from happening in the future.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and ending rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. In its first year, the Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4282", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-03-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-03-12T15:44:55.927Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "7"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-02-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Homelessness: Death"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication of figures by the Office for National Statistics that showed that 597 homeless people died on the streets of England and Wales in 2017, what plans they have to reduce and eliminate such deaths.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/248", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Jones of Cheltenham"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Jones of Cheltenham"} ], "uin" : "HL14101"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }