'No Need for New Laws on Squatting’

The Law Society has described Government plans to create a new criminal offence of squatting as entirely disproportionate. Responding to the Ministry of Justice's "Options for dealing with squatting" consultation, the Law Society said while squatting is understandably a concern to the public, current legislation is adequate to deal with the problem. John Wotton, Law Society president, said: "It is quite mistaken to create a new offence without the evidence to support it. Indeed, the Government consultation acknowledges a lack of statistical evidence. The proposals in this consultation are based on misunderstandings, repeated by the media, of the scale of the problem and of the current law, which is both comprehensive and effective. The consultation proposes to create a new criminal offence of squatting. This is unnecessary as it is our experience that squatting is not a very significant problem and that where it does occur there are a range of laws both civil and criminal that are adequate to deal with it. We urge the Government to conduct statistical research before reacting to media-driven public concerns.” Read more on the Nottingham Post website.