Vagrancy Act 1824

The Vagrancy Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 83) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was introduced in 1824 as a measure to deal with specific problems in England following the Napoleonic Wars. The large numbers of soldiers who arrived, and who were discharged on to the streets with no job and no accommodation, were joined by a massive influx of economic migrants from Ireland and Scotland who traveled to England, and especially London, in search of work. The ancient pass laws were ineffective in dealing with the increased numbers of homeless and penniless urban poor. The Vagrancy Act was introduced as a method of dealing with a specific early 19th-century problem. Punishment for the wide definition of vagrancy (including prostitution) was up to one month hard labour.

Although the Act originally only applied to England and Wales, Section 4 of the Act, which deals mainly with vagrancy and begging, was extended to Scotland and Ireland by section 15 of the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871. The Vagrancy Act 1898 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912 further extended provisions of the Vagrancy Act 1824 to Scotland and Ireland.

The Vagrancy Act 1824 made it an offence to sleep on the streets or to beg. In essence, it became a crime in England and Wales to be homeless or to cadge subsistence money. When the Act was passed, criticism of it centred on the fact that it created a catch-all offence. To sleep on the streets or to beg subsistence became a crime, whatever reason an individual might have had for being in such a predicament. That provision still applies today.

The 1824 Act was amended several times, most notably by the Vagrancy Act 1838, which introduced a number of new public order offences that were deemed at the time to be likely to cause moral outrage.