§ 10 pm
§ Mr. A. W. Stallard (St. Pancras, North)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I beg leave to present a petition signed by supporters of the campaign for the homeless and rootless, accompanied by analogous petitions containing over 4,000 signatures of people who support that campaign.
The petition condemns the continuing practice under the Vagrancy Acts of 1824 and 1935 of punishing and imprisoning people who are forced to sleep rough because there is nowhere for them to live and whose numbers, because of prevailing circumstances, are on the increase.
The petition showeth
that there is no place for the vagrancy and begging laws in the 1980s. Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House will repeal the laws relating to the offences of sleeping rough, begging and being found on enclosed premises in the Vagrancy Acts of 1824 and 1935.And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.