Rough sleeping will be decriminalised next year under government plans to scrap a 200-year-old law. Ministers are planning to scrap the Vagrancy Act, which outlaws rough sleeping in England and Wales.

The law was introduced in 1824 to deal with rising homelessness, but Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has called it “cruel and outdated”. The government’s plan includes new legislation which will target crimes such as organised begging by gangs and trespassing, a statement said.

Rayner, who is also housing secretary, said Labour was “drawing a line under nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society”.

“No one should ever be criminalised simply for sleeping rough and by scrapping this cruel and outdated law, we are making sure that can never happen again,” she said.

The number of prosecutions and convictions under the 1824 act has declined over the past decade.

Read the full article: Rough sleeping to be decriminalised in England and Wales

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