§ Lord Stallardasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many people were prosecuted under the Vagrancy Act 1824 in the year ended 31st December 1990 for (a) sleeping rough, and (b) begging in the following areas (i) Metropolitan District (ii) City of London (iii) Liverpool (iv) City 13WA of Manchester (v) Sheffield (vi) Brighton (vii) Oxford (viii) Birmingham (ix) Kent (x) Sussex (xi) Surrey (xii) Thames Valley (xiii) West Midlands (xiv) Greater Manchester Police Area (xv) Newcastle upon Tyne (xvi) Norfolk (xvii) Suffolk (xviii) Essex.
Earl Ferrers:Information is not yet available for 1990. The table below shows the number of prosecutions for sleeping out and begging by police force area in 1989.
Number of defendants prosecuted for the offences of sleeping out and begging under the Vagrancy Act 1824 by police force area 1989 England and Wales Police Force Area Sleeping out Begging Avon and Somerset — 15 Bedfordshire 1 2 Cambridgeshire — 10 Cumbria — 3 Devon and Cornwall — 20 Dorset — 3 Essex 1 — Greater Manchester 3 2 Hampshire 2 5 Hertfordshire — 1 Humberside 2 1 Kent — 1 Lancashire 1 7 London, City of — 5 Merseyside 1 7 Metropolitan Police District 12 1,251 North Yorkshire — 1 Staffordshire — 1 Surrey — 1 Sussex — 19 Thames Valley 1 40 West Midlands — 2 Wiltshire — 3 South Wales — 2 England and Wales 24 1,402 No offences were recorded in the Police Force Areas of Cheshire, Cleveland, Derbyshire, Durham, Gloucester, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, West Mercia, West Yorkshire, Dyfed Powys, Gwent and North Wales.