Squatting
Justice
Mike Weatherley (Hove, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) whether he has any plans to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of the squatting provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 in respect of their effects on the cost of policing and number of instances of squatting;
(2) what representations he has received from police forces on the squatting provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 since it received Royal Assent;
(3) what steps he plans to take to measure the effectiveness of the squatting provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
Crispin Blunt (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Prisons and Probation), Justice; Reigate, Conservative)
We will monitor the impact of the new offence and conduct formal post-legislative scrutiny within three to five years of Royal Assent. We have not received any direct representations from police forces since Royal Assent but my officials are working with the Home Office and ACPO to discuss what training and guidance might be required to facilitate enforcement.