Rough sleeping is no longer a crime in England. Is Northern Ireland about to catch up or fall behind?

In the eyes of the law, for almost two hundred years, sleeping on a bench or begging on a street corner was a criminal act. This principle was struck from the statute book in England and Wales on the 29th of June 2026. This principle was the Vagrancy Act of 1824 – a law which was originally aimed at demobilised soldiers and beggars in Georgian England. Since its abrogation, Housing Secretary Steve Reed has stated, “homeless people are not criminals, they are people who need help.” I believe this statement underpins the government's correct logic when repealing this Act.

What’s had far less attention is that, at almost the same time, Northern Ireland is going through an almost identical reckoning.

The Vagrancy Act 1824 and its companion statute, the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act 1847, remain in force. Section 4 of the 1824 Act still criminalises "sleeping out", and Section 3 of the 1847 Act still illegalises begging. Recently, Justice Minister Naomi Long has tabled an amendment to the Justice Bill at Stormont that would repeal both provisions. Homeless Connect has welcomed the move as “progressive leadership”, and the Chartered Institute of Housing's Northern Ireland has gone further, arguing that the law should be “scrapped entirely”, with “no replacement powers put in its place”. Notwithstanding, the amendment is still working its way through the Assembly, with nothing set in stone just yet.

It’s worth mentioning the scale in front of us. Northern Ireland has never really prosecuted rough sleepers in large numbers. Assembly research shows 44 prosecutions and 24 convictions for rough sleeping under the 1824 Act between 2018 and 2023, alongside 286 prosecutions and 269 convictions for begging under the 1847 Act over the same period – with almost all of them being in Belfast. Recently, the Street Needs Audit identified 226 individuals rough sleeping in Belfast, 50 in Derry-Londonderry and 12 in Newry. Upon comparison to England’s situation – these numbers may not seem enormous.

In Northern Ireland’s favour, this makes the repeal increasingly more straightforward – due to the scarcity of using the law and how uneven it proves in practice, this shows it was never tangibly performing the job of managing homelessness. But, if officers know it’s available, they can reach for it when there is no superior option.

I believe that is the real question which both governments are avoiding. While the repeal would remove the crime – it does not answer what happens instead the next time a police officer is the first person to encounter someone sleeping rough. Thus far, England’s answer has been to legislate around the edges, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 now targets “organised begging and trespass linked to criminal activity”, but leaves the actual first response largely undefined. If Stormont repeals its own vagrancy law without building anything to replace the police's current role, Northern Ireland risks a quieter version of the same gap. This potentially could mean a rough sleeper who used to face arrest now faces nothing at all, in both directions, there is no penalty, but no pathway to support either. 

This is the space a diversion model is built for, and it's worth setting out what one could actually look like, rather than leaving the idea abstract.  Over the past year I've been developing a proposal - informed by volunteering with The Ark homeless shelter in Shrewsbury and conversations with two local MPs - for a police diversion scheme aimed specifically at first-time rough sleepers. The mechanism of the proposal is straightforward - rather than an officer’s only options being to move someone on or do nothing, a first encounter triggers an automatic referral to outreach services, with contact details logged and a follow-up expected within days. Enforcement is reserved for repeat refusal or genuinely criminal conduct, not for the fact of being homeless itself. It isn't a solution to the underlying housing crisis, not a lot at the level of simply policing can be, but it gives repeal something to attach to operationally, instead of leaving officers with an empty legal space where a bad, ancient law used to sit. 

Northern Ireland now has a genuine opportunity to get this right in a way England arguably hasn't yet. To do so, they should pair the repeal itself with a clearly defined first response, built with the homelessness sector rather than around it. Homeless Connect and CIH NI have already said they want repeal without replacement criminal powers. The underlying question is whether Stormont is willing to build the non-criminal alternative with the same urgency it's shown in scrapping the old law. Because decriminalising rough sleeping is, first and foremost, an incredibly necessary step, but not a finished one. The gap between the two is the quicksand which deepens the situation.

Alexander Weilds, student at Shrewsbury School.