Government insists it ‘will not criminalise’ homeless people after bill backlash

Published

1 year ago

April 11, 2024

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The health secretary has insisted the government “will not criminalise” homeless people, after a large backlash to its proposals for a new law.

Ministers are seeking to replace the 200-year-old Vagrancy Act from 1824 – which makes rough sleeping illegal – with its new Criminal Justice Bill, which the government says will instead target “nuisance begging”.

But the definition of a “nuisance” has led to uproar from both campaigners and MPs – including as many as 40 Tories, who are threatening to rebel over the plan – as it includes people sleeping in a doorway, those creating “excessive smell”, or someone “looking like they are intending to sleep on the streets”.

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A total of 37 housing and homelessness charities have today written to Home Secretary James Cleverly, warning the legislation “risks stigmatising people forced to sleep on the streets and pushing them away from help”, as well as seeing homeless women “penalised for seeking safety in well-lit doorways”.

And with the proposals including fines of up to £2,500, along with prison terms, it could see homeless people criminalised.

Asked by Kay Burley on Sky News about the controversial definitions, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins claimed the government “wants to help the most vulnerable in society”, and was putting £2.4bn into eradicating rough sleeping.

She added: “We have been very, very clear. What we’re trying to target are those criminal gangs that make a living out of intimidating people.

“We want to stop some of the aggressive begging that can happen around cash points, for example.

“But we do not and will not criminalise people who don’t have a home. Absolutely not. That is not what this bill is about.”

Asked if the wording of the definitions would be changed, Ms Atkins did not answer directly.

Instead, she said: “We are absolutely not criminalising people who… sleep on the streets because they do not have a home.

“What we want to do is support them into supportive accommodation because again, many people who are living rough have complex needs… they need mental health support.

“They may have been victims of horrendous adverse childhood experiences in their time.

“There are real vulnerabilities here that we want to support. And this is not about criminalising people who are homeless.”

But Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis – one of the charities that signed the letter to the home secretary – issued a warning to ministers seeking to go forward with the bill.

“The government cites a moral imperative to end rough sleeping, yet these new measures will make it more difficult to do so,” he said.

“They will punish people for having nowhere else to go and push them further away from support.

“If we focus on the solutions that work – building safe and stable social housing and investing in specialist support that helps people keep their home – we can end rough sleeping.

“But the first and easiest thing the home secretary can do is listen to the concerns of these experienced organisations and remove these cruel and counterproductive measures.”

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The most recent government study into homelessness found 3,898 people sleeping rough on one night across England – an increase of 27% on the previous year.

It is also estimated that more than 242,000 households are experiencing some form of homelessness in England, including sofa surfing, being stuck in temporary accommodation and rough sleeping.

Research from Crisis also showed nine in 10 people sleeping rough had been victims of violence or abuse.

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US charges 2 men over $650M OmegaPro crypto scam

Published

13 mins ago

July 9, 2025

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US charges 2 men over 0M OmegaPro crypto scam

US prosecutors charged two men for allegedly running the crypto fraud scheme OmegaPro, which promised 300% returns to investors.

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US sanctions North Korean tech worker crew over crypto thefts

Published

4 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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US sanctions North Korean tech worker crew over crypto thefts

TRM Labs said North Korea is moving away from hacks to focus more on deception-based revenue generation, such as planting IT workers in US companies.

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UK and France have ‘shared responsibility’ to tackle illegal migration, Emmanuel Macron says

Published

6 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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UK and France have 'shared responsibility' to tackle illegal migration, Emmanuel Macron says

Emmanuel Macron has said the UK and France have a “shared responsibility” to tackle the “burden” of illegal migration, as he urged co-operation between London and Paris ahead of a crunch summit later this week.

Addressing parliament in the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the French president said the UK-France summit would bring “cooperation and tangible results” regarding the small boats crisis in the Channel.

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Mr Macron – who is the first European leader to make a state visit to the UK since Brexit – told the audience that while migrants’ “hope for a better life elsewhere is legitimate”, “we cannot allow our countries’ rules for taking in people to be flouted and criminal networks to cynically exploit the hopes of so many individuals with so little respect for human life”.

“France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness,” he added.

Looking ahead to the UK-France summit on Thursday, he promised the “best ever cooperation” between France and the UK “to fix today what is a burden for our two countries”.

Sir Keir Starmer will hope to reach a deal with his French counterpart on a “one in, one out” migrant returns deal at the key summit on Thursday.

King Charles also addressed the delegations at a state banquet in Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, saying the summit would “deepen our alliance and broaden our partnerships still further”.

Sitting next to President Macron, the monarch said: “Our armed forces will cooperate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine as we join together in leading a coalition of the willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression. In other words, in defence of our shared values.”

In April, British officials confirmed a pilot scheme was being considered to deport migrants who cross the English Channel in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in France with legitimate claims.

The two countries have engaged in talks about a one-for-one swap, enabling undocumented asylum seekers who have reached the UK by small boat to be returned to France.

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Britain would then receive migrants from France who would have a right to be in the UK, like those who already have family settled here.

The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.

Elsewhere in his speech, the French president addressed Brexit, and said the UK could not “stay on the sidelines” despite its departure from the European Union.

He said European countries had to break away from economic dependence on the US and China.

“Our two countries are among the oldest sovereign nations in Europe, and sovereignty means a lot to both of us, and everything I referred to was about sovereignty, deciding for ourselves, choosing our technologies, our economy, deciding our diplomacy, and deciding the content we want to share and the ideas we want to share, and the controversies we want to share.

“Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy – the very core of our identity – are connected across Europe as a continent.”