The Vagrancy Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 83) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes it an offence to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. It is still mostly in force and enforceable. Critics, including William Wilberforce, condemned the Act for being a catch-all offence because it did not consider the circumstances as to why an individual might be placed in such a predicament. Background The law was enacted to deal with the increasing numbers of homeless and penniless urban poor in England and Wales following the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Nine years after the Battle of Waterloo the British Army and Royal Navy had both undergone a massive reduction in size, leaving large numbers of discharged soldiers and sailors without an occupation or accommodation. Many were living rough on the streets or in makeshift camps. At the same time a massive influx of economic migrants from Ireland and Scotland arrived in England, especially into London, in search of work. Politicians in the unreformed House of Commons became concerned that parish constables were becoming ineffective in controlling these "vagrants". Furthermore the medieval pass laws which gave itinerant travelling people free movement through a given district were considered to be no longer effective. Offences Punishment for the wide definition of vagrancy (including prostitution) was up to one month's hard labour. The Act of 1824 was amended several times, most notably by the Vagrancy Act 1838, which introduced a number of new public order offences covering acts that were deemed at the time to be likely to cause moral outrage. It contained a provision for the prosecution of "every Person wilfully exposing to view, in any Street ... or public Place, any obscene Print, Picture, or other indecent Exhibition". Although the Act of 1824 originally applied only to England and Wales, Section 4 of the Act, which dealt mainly with vagrancy and begging, was extended to Scotland and Ireland by section 15 of the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871. This section (and consequently the extension beyond England and Wales) was repealed by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. The Vagrancy Act 1898 prohibited soliciting or importuning for immoral purposes. Originally intended as a measure against prostitution, in practice the legislation was almost solely used to convict men for gay sex. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912, extended provisions of the 1824 Act to