10Sep 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Rough sleeping across England soars by 39.4% in past year

Rough sleeping across England soars by 39.4% in past year

Parliamentary news
Figures show the number of households assessed as rough sleeping across England have soared by 39.4% in the past year, up from 8,310 to 11,580. Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who this week held a House of Commons debate on rough sleeping, has called on the government to take action to live up to their manifesto commitment of ending rough sleeping across the country stating that we are “in dire need of action”. The Lib Dem MP also called out the "heartless" cut to Universal Credit saying that it would "plunge even more people into poverty." The figures show a huge rise in rough sleeping across the nation's capital London, with a 66% increase in rough sleeping bringing the total to a staggering 11,580. Commenting on the stats, Liberal Democrat…
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11May 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Queen’s Speech: Government “failing the homeless” by not including Vagrancy Act repeal

Queen’s Speech: Government “failing the homeless” by not including Vagrancy Act repeal

Parliamentary news
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has said the Government is “failing the homeless” and “putting their crackdown on protests and draconian voter ID law over repeal of the Vagrancy Act”. The Government failed to include repeal of the Dickensian law that criminalises rough sleeping in the Queen’s Speech. It comes after Layla Moran led a major cross-party intervention last week, in a letter signed by over 60 parliamentarians including the Bishop of Manchester, MPs and Peers from five parties and crossbenchers, urging Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick to include repealing the law, saying: “A failure to ensure the scrapping of the Act in the next session would deal a blow to cross-party efforts to address the homelessness crisis”. In February, Jenrick told the Commons he thought the Act, which criminalises rough…
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11May 2021 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Queen’s Speech: Government urged to repeal “heartless” Vagrancy Act

Queen’s Speech: Government urged to repeal “heartless” Vagrancy Act

Parliamentary news
Over 60 MPs and Peers from five parties, as well as crossbenchers and the Bishop of Manchester, have written to Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick urging him to include the repeal of the Vagrancy Act in today’s Queen’s Speech, in a letter led by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran. Signatories include the Bishop of Manchester and Lord Morse, the ex-Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office, as well as parliamentarians from the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Labour, Greens and Plaid Cymru. In the letter, they urge the Housing Secretary to act following his comments in the House of Commons in late February, saying: “A failure to ensure the scrapping of the Act in the next session would deal a blow to cross-party efforts to address the homelessness crisis with a…
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15Dec 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Rise in homeless deaths demands end of Vagrancy Act

Rise in homeless deaths demands end of Vagrancy Act

Parliamentary news
The Liberal Democrats are renewing calls for the Vagrancy Act to be scrapped, as new official statistics reveal a rise in the number of deaths of homeless people in 2019. The figures from the Office for National Statistics, published today, show that there were an estimated 778 deaths in 2019, an increase of 7.2% since 2018. The highest numbers of deaths were in London (144) and the North West (126). Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who has tabled a Bill to repeal the Vagrancy Act, said: “Every one of these deaths is heart-breaking. The fact that so many people are dying on our streets is the most shameful example of the failure of our housing and welfare systems. “The Conservative Government doesn’t seem to care. For too long, they have…
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01Jun 2020 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Government must urgently scrap Vagrancy Act as part of plan to end rough sleeping

Parliamentary news
Following today's announcements from the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary and Dame Louise Casey relating to support for rough sleepers, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said: “After years of prevarication it took a crisis to get the Tories to house thousands who were sleeping rough at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's vital that this support continues in the months ahead, to ensure we don't go backwards when such progress has been made. “Ministers must now show they are completely committed to tackling this issue head on. “That is why the Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to commit to scrapping the Dickensian Vagrancy Act - which unfairly criminalises people for rough sleeping - as a matter of urgency. Otherwise the law remains wholly incompatible with the plans outlined to support rough sleepers in…
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25Feb 2019 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Moran: Use of Vagrancy Act should shame the Government

Campaigns, Parliamentary news
A Freedom of Information request has shown that 6,518 ‘offenders’ were found guilty under the Vagrancy Act (1824) between the years 2014 to 2017 in England and Wales.  The Metropolitan Police were the most likely force to use the Act, which criminalises rough sleepers, averaging 459 convictions a year. West Midlands police force area averaged 161, and Merseyside averaged 148 per year.  Commenting on the findings, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who has brought forward legislation to scrap the Vagrancy Act, said: “The Government, and local authorities, should be ashamed that they have continued to allow the use of a law that makes rough sleeping a criminal offence, and for it to be used so prolifically with little regard for the people afflicted. “This law was controversial 200 years ago,…
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25Feb 2019 by Sam Al-Hamdani

Nearly 600 deaths on our streets is a ‘national disgrace’

Parliamentary news
Figures released this morning show that of the 597 homelessness deaths in 2017, Manchester (21) and Birmingham (18) were the cities worst affected, with Bristol, Lambeth and Liverpool (all 17), also registering more than one death a month. Responding to these statistics, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who has introduced legislation to scrap the archaic Vagrancy Act, said:  “The fact that nearly 600 people died on our streets in 2017 is not just a tragedy, it is a national disgrace of which we should be deeply ashamed. “These figures show that all over the country, our homelessness crisis is at epidemic levels and people are indefensibly losing their lives. We must do more to protect vulnerable people and support those at their lowest ebb. “The Liberal Democrats demand better. We want…
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31Jan 2019 by Sam Al-Hamdani
Moran: Rough sleeping shames our whole country

Moran: Rough sleeping shames our whole country

Campaigns, Parliamentary news
The Liberal Democrats have today called for cross-party support for Layla Moran's Bill to scrap the Vagrancy Act following the publication of official figures which reveal there were 4,677 rough sleepers across England in Autumn 2018.Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said:“The fact that thousands of people sleep rough every night shames our whole country. These figures don’t even capture the many more ‘hidden homeless’ in insecure and unsuitable accommodation. “Even worse, hundreds of homeless people die each year, as the tragic death of Kane Walker in Birmingham on Sunday reminded us. The Tories are failing our most vulnerable people."The Liberal Democrats demand better. We want the Government to be building up to 100,000 social homes a year, provide accommodation and support to those in need, and finally back my Bill to scrap…
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