For more than 200 years, the Vagrancy Act treated people who are homeless as second-class citizens. Thanks to you, it has now been consigned to the history books – where it belongs.
The Vagrancy Act 1824 was a piece of legislation that made it a criminal offence to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. It was passed more than 200 years ago in response to increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness and poverty after the Napoleonic wars.
Under the Act, police in England and Wales were able to issue fines of up to £1,000 or prosecute people who are begging or rough sleeping. This was unacceptable.
Crisis has campaigned to repeal the Vagrancy Act since the 1990s.
We’ve campaigned alongside a coalition of charities, partners, police forces and politicians of all parties in England and Wales to make the case for repealing this archaic law.
This led to the UK Parliament voting to repeal the Act in February 2022.Now, in 2026, the change has finally come into effect.
This win belongs to the thousands of you who signed petitions and emailed your MPs.
To those of us with lived experience of homelessness who spoke out and shared their experiences in Parliament. And to everyone who worked with us to make this change possible.
We never stopped fighting for what’s right. And together, we’ve finally scrapped the Act. Thank you.
Repealing the Vagrancy Act means that people experiencing homelessness can no longer be arrested, fined or face a criminal record for being forced to sleep on the streets.
The threat of criminalisation pushed people further away from support they needed. This change should mean that more people experiencing homelessness will feel confident to seek help from services.
The Vagrancy Act did nothing to address the root causes of homelessness.
Scrapping the Act should signal a different approach to helping people forced onto the streets and prevent thousands of people from being pushed into the shadows, away from safety.
Together, we helped change a law that had harmed people for centuries. We proved that when we speak out together, change is possible. Support our work so we can keep being here for people facing homelessness, for as long as it takes.
