Government urged to scrap 200-year-old vagrancy act by coalition of homelessness charities

Homelessness campaigners are asking the government to scrap a 195-year-old law that makes it a crime to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales.

The government is soon to review the 1824 Vagrancy Act, but seven high-profile support charities have joined together to call for it to be repealed altogether.

They say that it not only criminalises homeless people, but makes them more mistrustful of authorities and therefore harder to help.  We have been meeting some rough sleepers.