Begging and Vagrancy
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what safeguards have been put in place to distinguish organised begging from begging arising from homelessness or destitution.
Answered by Sarah Jones
The new offence of facilitating begging for gain in the Crime and Policing Act does not directly apply to individuals who are rough sleeping or begging. Instead, this new offence makes it unlawful for anyone to organise others to beg. The measure is intended to disrupt the activity of those who make financial gain by managing the begging activity of others. Such individuals often drop off and collect associates from ‘lucrative’ begging pitches or carry out other activity to facilitate organised begging.
Often organised begging gangs are hierarchical, and the individuals facilitating and profiting from the begging are not the people that are engaging in begging.
We will update statutory guidance on the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to provide more certainty on how these powers can be applied to different scenarios
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