Nearly 2,500 arrests in England and Wales since 2019 under Vagrancy Act

Exclusive: Figure includes 500 homeless people detained since government pledged to replace Georgian-era legislation in 2022

Almost 2,500 homeless people have been arrested by police in England and Wales since 2019 under the Georgian-era Vagrancy Act, among them nearly 500 people since the government pledged to replace the act in 2022.

Freedom of information requests to police forces by the Liberal Democrats showed a total of 2,412 arrests since 2019 under the 1824 law, originally introduced to target homeless and wounded veterans of the Napoleonic wars.