Pressure is mounting on the government to repeal a “draconian and outdated” Georgian-era law used to criminalise thousands of homeless people each year for sleeping and begging on the street.

Charities and politicians of all stripes have laid out their opposition to the Vagrancy Act, which was controversial even when rolled out in 1824.

The Labour Party adopting its abolition as policy in December 2018 and charities Centrepoint, St Mungo’s and Crisis have called for an end to the law, which was described in parliament this week as “a cruel and outdated piece of legislation” by Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP who has been campaigning for its repeal since February 2018.

"If the Act were isn’t needed in those areas then why is it needed anywhere at all," she said. "Government should listen to those on the front line and come clean about who the stakeholders who want to keep it are. Having asked repeatedly they refuse to do so which can only suggest they themselves are the barrier."

Crisis’ director of policy and external affairs, Matt Downie, told The Independent the act was "not fit for purpose" as it represented "social attitudes 200 years out of date and must be repealed as soon as possible,” .

The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Show all 10 1 /10 The Stats: Homelessness in the UK The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Sleeping rough up 165% from 2010 The total number of people counted or estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2018 was 4,677, up 2,909 people or 165% from the 2010 total of 1,768 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London rough sleepers up 13% The number of people sleeping rough increased by 146 or 13% in London since 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London accounted for 27% of people sleeping rough in England London accounted for 27% of the total number of people sleeping rough in England. This is up from 24% of the England total in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 64% of rough sleeps UK nationals 64% were UK nationals, compared to 71% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 14% of rough sleepers are women 14% of the people recorded sleeping rough were women, the same as in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 6% were aged 25 years or under, compared to 8% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Thousands of families staying in temporary housing Almost 79,000 families were staying in temporary housing in the last three months of 2017 because they didn't have a permanent home, compared with 48,010 in the same period eight years before Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Reduction in families living in temporary housing before Coalition government There had been a significant reduction in families living in such conditions before the Coalition government came into power, with the number having fallen by 52 per cent between 2004 and 2010 under the Labour government AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Families staying in temporary has risen since But the figure has crept up in each of the past seven years, from 69,140 in the last quarter of 2015, to 75,740 in the same period in 2016 and 78,930 at the end of last year Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Nearly 58,000 families accepted as homeless (2018) Nearly 58,000 families have been accepted as homeless by their local council in the past year (as of March 2018), equating to an increase of 8 per cent over the last five years Getty

He said while it was right for councils and police to respond to “genuine antisocial activity”, being homeless and destitute should never be considered a crime.

The government has agreed to review the legislation but called for “a cool-headed assessment of the law before acting” during this week’s debate.

Jake Berry, a minister at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG), told the House of Commons: “The Government do not believe that anyone should be criminalised for simply sleeping rough, but equally we should not rush to a wholesale repeal of the 1824 Act without proper consideration of the consequences.”

A freedom of information request to the Crown Prosecution Service in 2016 revealed that more than 2,000 people had been prosecuted under the Act every year for at least 10 years.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have abolished the law, which has been extended over the years to prosecute offences deemed to cause “moral outrage”, including homosexuality, prostitution and “living in sin”.

Thirty-four per cent of local authorities in England and Wales still use it to punish rough sleeping and begging, although the majority choose not to enforce it.

Mr Berry said the 1824 Act was “sometimes the only option to get someone off the street when they have become dependent on begging income to support their drug or alcohol dependency”.

A recent survey of outreach workers by London based St Mungo’s showed 71 per cent were in favour of scrapping the law.

Several respondents agreed that law enforcement is sometimes required in the case of “persistent” or “aggressive” begging, but said the legal mechanisms for this already exist elsewhere.

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Centrepoint’s head of public affairs, Paul Noblet said that repealing the law would help positively shape the attitudes of enforcement agencies, save valuable police time and allow government resources to be better spent providing meaningful support.

“The government’s own rough sleeping strategy states that those sleeping rough are vulnerable and should not be discriminated against,” he said. “The Act does nothing to resolve homelessness and contributes to the shame and stigma associated with it.”

Hugh Gaffney, a Labour MP who spoke during this week's parliamentary debate, said he believed the Act was “symbolic of the Government’s attitude towards homelessness”.

Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Show all 62 1 /62 Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Snow covers houses in Gold Hill, in Shaftesbury, Dorset PA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures People enjoying a walk through Whitelee Windfarm in North Ayrshire, Scotland EPA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Snow Rollers form in a field in Marlborough, Wiltshire. They are a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large snowballs are formed naturally as chunks of snow are blown along the ground by the wind. As they move they pick up snow on the way, in much the same way that the large snowballs used in snowmen are made. SWNS/Brian Bayliss Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Two men help a driver try to get his car moving, after snowfalls yesterday and overnight have brought widespread disruption PA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Snow dusts the Angel of the North sculpture and covers the ground surrounding it in Gateshead PA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures A wintry scene at Nenthead in Cumbria after a band of wintry weather brought hill snow and a risk of ice to large parts of the country PA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures Children play in the snow in Hartley Wintney, in Hampshire AFP/Getty Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures A dog walker in a street in Bristol PA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures The River Forth in Stirling PA Snow and icy conditions hit the UK – Winter weather in pictures A man walks past the Starbucks 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Mr Gaffney also accused the government of using the act “to ignore the need to tackle the underlying causes of homelessness such as poverty, debt, addiction and lack of affordable housing.”

Despite a two per cent decrease in the government’s rough sleeping figures, homeless shelters across the UK are experiencing record demand, an investigation by The Independent revealed this week.

Nearly half of the 3,289 individuals recorded sleeping rough in London this winter were doing so for the first time, a simultaneous report by the Chain database revealed.

When announcing the law’s repeal as Labour policy, Jeremy Corbyn said: “Homeless people need help, not punishment. It should shame us all that rough sleeping has doubled in the last eight years and nearly 600 people died while homeless last year.”

Minister for Housing and Homelessness Heather Wheeler MP said: “No one is meant to spend their lives on the streets, or without a home to call their own. That’s why we are investing £1.2bn to tackle homelessness and have bold plans backed by £100m to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027.