Nomadism is Under Threat: One Government Bill Could Criminalise and Evict Thousands

Katie Webb, Year 2

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was introduced to parliament on 9^th March 2021 (UK Parliament, 2022). Following the police involvement at the Sarah Everard Vigil days later, it entered the wider public’s consciousness, helped by the #killthebill social media campaign. The illiberal attempts to curtail protest have been widely reported and faced criticism from The Times (Hamilton. S, 2021) to the Guardian (2021). But why aren’t we talking about its impact on Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities more? After all, it’s only going to criminalise their way of life.

The government is trying to clamp down on so-called “unauthorised encampments,” where people are occupying land against the wishes of the landowner. The bill does this by making trespassing a criminal offence instead of a civil one. Police will have the power to arrest trespassing adults and confiscate their vehicles, which may well be their home. If someone is found guilty, sentences can be up to three months imprisonment and a £2500 fine (Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, 2021).

Gypsies, Travellers and Roma refer to many diverse groups of people, each with distinct cultural heritage, traditions and way of life. Despite rich cultural history, centuries of oppression have contributed to their underrepresentation in history books. At present, there are an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 people who identify as Gypsy, Traveller or Roma (The Traveller Movement, no date). Many groups are considered ethnic minorities (Women and Equalities Committee, 2019) and many traditionally endorsed a nomadic way of life, although the proportion living in static caravan sites – as well as houses – has grown considerably (ONS, 2014). Now, a nomadic way of life is completely under threat.

The bitter irony of this bill is that it will criminalise unauthorised encampments despite a chronic shortage of spaces on authorised traveller sites. The charity Friends, Family and Travellers revealed in January 2021 that there were 1696 households on waiting lists for pitches, yet only 101 pitches available (Friends, Families & Travellers, 2021). Additionally, research from 2020 showed that only 8 out of 68 local authorities in the South East of England had identified enough land to accommodate the Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in their local area (Nuttal et al., 2020). In short, many people accused of trespassing do so simply because they have nowhere else to go. 

This lack of traveller sites is recognised as a key issue by the police. In consultations between the police and the Home Office, 93.7% of police forces identified better site provision as the solution to unauthorised encampments, and only 21.7% of respondents supported criminalising them (Gilmore et al., 2020). Yet instead of substantially increasing funding for new sites, or bringing back a statutory obligation to provide sites (as there was in the now-repealed Caravan Sites Act of 1968), the government has decided to press ahead with criminalising unauthorised encampments.

The wording of the bill is truly frightening. The government is broadly trying to create it an offense to reside on someone else’s land, with a vehicle, not leave when requested and cause harm in the form of offensive behaviour, disruption or damage. However, the wording of the bill encompasses so much more. Someone doesn’t have to have actually resided on the land to be included in the bill, but just be “intending to reside,” and nor do they need to cause actual harm but merely generate a concern that “significant damage or significant disruption . . . is likely to be caused.” Someone doesn’t have to have actually done anything, but simply be deemed to be intending to, in order to be committing a criminal offense. This criminalisation of intent should scare all of us. Yes, giving police powers to act proactively can be considered a good thing in certain limited circumstances. Yet is it a good idea when these powers will likely be mainly used against a group of people who face so much conscious and unconscious prejudice? The definition of offensive behaviour, amongst other things, includes “insulting” behaviour and signs, which will inevitably rely upon the police and landowners subjective experience of this. Is it wise to have a law – which will likely be used against a historically persecuted group – have such subjective terms left open to the interpretation of the police, who like most people will suffer implicit biases?

If a police officer “reasonably suspects” an offense has occurred (remember that someone might not have actually done anything, but be deemed to be intending to) they can seize any “relevant property”. This includes vehicles, wherever they are located. This will, in all likelihood, be Gypsies, Travellers and Roma homes. The disproportionality of this proposal is staggering. To take away someone’s home, if they are accused of something that was only recently a civil crime. To take away someone’s home without providing a viable legal alternative. To take away someone’s home for something that has a shorter maximum custodial sentence than shoplifting. If the government proposed taking away someone’s home for almost any other minor crimes, be it petty theft, possession of drugs, drunk and disorderly conduct, and quite possibly for far more serious crimes, there would be uproar over the sheer unfairness of it. What I’m really saying is, if this was happening to almost any other group of people, we wouldn’t stand for it. So why are we?

At the time of writing, a recent defeat of Priti Patel’s particularly draconian amendments regarding protest of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in the Lords has delayed the bill, but it is still expected that the bulk of it (including the parts about unauthorised encampments) will eventually pass into law. Yes, there is some hope for future legal challenges, likely under Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, or at least judicial guidance over the subjective terms of the bill. But this is by no means a guarantee, and it almost doesn’t bear thinking about how many people will be made homeless, traditions abandoned and families heartbroken before this happens. Yet we must bear to think about it, as it is soon to be the lived experience of many. 

As this appallingly oppressive and tragically incommensurate bill turns from a nightmare to reality, it is worth remembering the French philosopher Albert Camus’ words: “democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.”

References

Caravan Sites Act 1968 c. 52. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/52/pdfs/ukpga_19680052_en.pdf (Accessed 25/01/2022/)

Friends, Families & Travellers (2021). ‘New research shows huge unmet need for pitches on Traveller sites in England’. Available at https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/planning/new-research-shows-huge-unmet-need-for-pitches-on-traveller-sites-in-england/ (Accessed: 25/01/2022).

Gilmore, V., Kirkby, A. and Dolling, B. (2020). ‘Police renew calls for more Gypsy and Traveller sites in opposition to the criminalisation of unauthorised encampments’. Available at: https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Full-Report-Police-repeat-calls-for-more-sites-not-powers-FINAL.pdf (Accessed 25/01/2022).

Hamilton, S. (2021). ‘Police crime bill “is harmful to democracy,”’ The Times, 05/07/21. Available at  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/policing-bill-is-harmful-to-democracy-ft9dg6r3x (Accessed: 06/01/2022).

Nuttal, E., Gilmore, V. and Buck, T., (2020). ‘No place to stop: Research on the five year supply of deliverable Gypsy and Traveller sites in the South East of England’. Available at https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Research-on-the-five-year-supply-of-deliverable-Gypsy-and-Traveller-sites-in-the-South-East-of-England.pdf (Accessed 25/01/2022).

Office for National Statistics. (2014). ‘’2011 Census analysis: What does the 2011 Census tell us about the characteristics of Gypsy or Irish travellers in England and Wales?’. Available at  https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/articles/whatdoesthe2011censustellusaboutthecharacteristicsofgypsyoririshtravellersinenglandandwales/2014-01-21 (Accessed: 25/01/2022).

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (2021). Parliament: House of Commons. Bill no. 268 (2019-2021). Available at https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/44739/documents/1259 (Accessed: 06/01/2021).

The Guardian. (2021). ‘The Guardian view on the police bill: a fight for the right to protest,’ The Guardian, 19/12/2021. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/19/the-guardian-view-on-the-police-bill-a-fight-for-the-right-to-protest (Accessed: 06/01/2022).The Traveller Movement. No date. ‘Gypsy Roma and Traveller History and Culture’. Available at: https://travellermovement.org.uk/gypsy-roma-and-traveller-history-and-culture/ (Accessed: 25/01/2022).