The legislation was passed in Georgian England to combat the increasing number of people forced to live on the streets due to the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the social effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Critics of the law included politician and abolitionist, William Wilberforce, who condemned the Act for making it a catch-all offence for vagrancy with no consideration of the circumstances as to why an individual might be homeless.

Secretary at War, Viscount Palmerston had then ordered a massive reduction in size of the peacetime British Army and Royal Navy, resulting in thousands of ex-servicemen being left without occupation or accommodation.

Led by powerful members of the British Establishment, it started a campaign to lobby Sir Robert Peel which successfully resulted in criminalising homelessness.

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".

In 2014 three men were arrested and charged under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 for stealing food that had been put in skips and bins outside an Iceland supermarket in Kentish Town, North London.

Paul May, William James and Jason Chan were due to stand trial after allegedly taking cheese, tomatoes and cakes worth £33 from bins behind the shop.

However, before that date the CPS announced its decision to drop the case, stating that it felt it had not given due weight to the public interest factors tending against prosecution.