Arrests rough sleepers - 233/18

Date Responded 16 March 2018

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

How many homeless people or rough sleepers have been arrested under the Vagrancy Act 1824 in the last five years for which figures are available?

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

The HO Codes applicable to the Vagrancy Act 1824 were used to filter the data in the Arrest table in the Central Database for the years requested. Each of those returns were then manually reviewed to establish which individuals were recorded as no fixed abode.

The result of that analysis is as below

2013 – 14

2014 – 5

2015 – 7

2016 – 8

2017 – 6

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.