Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

Soup run

UPDATE: 2 November 2011 - Westminster City Council has dropped the planned byelaw to criminalise the giving of free food to the homeless. The council has announced that it has dropped the scheme following positive negotiations and compromises on all sides. If the authority was to seek to reintroduce such a byelaw in future, it would have to embark upon its entire consultation process from scratch.



If Westminster Council has its way, a newly proposed bye-law will soon make it a crime to give out a free cup of soup to homeless people in Victoria.


Westminster Council say that charitable soup runs are an impediment to their ‘humanitarian ambition’ to reduce rough sleeping to zero and put people in contact with services which will take them off the streets. In short, they believe criminalising soup runs will stop large numbers of homeless people gathering in the area.


No one sleeps rough for a free sandwich
Liberty, along with many other third sector sector organisations working in this area, believe the proposed byelaw is fundamentally flawed. No one sleeps rough for a free sandwich.


An independent study by the London School of Economics Housing consultancy group agrees. It has concluded that rather than perpetuating a damaging street lifestyle soup runs actually provide a safety net for those who have slipped through the system. They were also found to provide a valuable form of support that homeless people – as well as those who are in supported accommodation – do not find elsewhere.


We are urging Westminster Council to drop these proposed byelaws, which are an offence against common decency, common values and common sense.


One need only look to similarly ill-judged powers, such as the power to arrest the homeless under the Vagrancy Act or dispersal powers under antisocial behaviour legislation, to see that this approach is flawed: it targets at-risk individuals with criminal sanctions which will only make their problems harder to overcome, it fails to address the root causes of homelessness, and will at best only displace homeless individuals elsewhere.


Take action

If you are a Westminster City Council resident please email your local councillor expressing your opposition to the proposed byelaw. 


>> A Nasty Taste

>> Evening Standard: 'Banning soup runs is a breach of human rights, says Liberty chief' - June 3, 2011

>> Is this ‘The Big Society’? Liberty demands Westminster council abandon plans to ban soup runs

>> Westminster Soup run byelaw - Legal opinion

>> Letter to Westminster City Councillors

>> Letter to Guardian

>> Blog: No one sleeps rough for a free sandwich

>> Liberty's response to the consultation

>> Housing Justice's Westminster Byelaw Campaign

Take action now

1Liberty Soup run e-Card
Send our Soup run e-card to a friend
2Email your MP and local Councillors
Use our template email:

"As you may be aware, Westminster Council in London is currently consulting on a byelaw which will make it a criminal offence to hand out free food and drink in a designated part of the Victoria area of the city.

Liberty believes that for reasons both of law and moral principle, the criminalisation of charity is the wrong approach to address homelessness. We believe that soup runs provide a safety net for some of the most vulnerable and marginalised in society and that this policy will do nothing but push the problem elsewhere. We are also concerned that if Westminster Council push ahead with this byelaw, it will come to be seen as a legitimate use of local government powers all over the country.

Fining someone for giving a free sandwich to a fellow human being is devoid of human compassion, and just as the Vagrancy Act of 1824 failed to eradicate begging and homelessness this new short-sighted approach will at best move the so-called problem elsewhere whilst imposing a difficult and unethical enforcement burden on police constables. It will also remove support from the most vulnerable members of our community and is also likely to a number of fundamental rights protected under the Human Rights Act 1998 and at common law.

We urge you to join us and sign Liberty’s petition, which will send the strongest of messages to your fellow governors in London that criminalising charity is neither sensible nor acceptable."
3Sign our Liberty Soup petition

We, the undersigned, urge Westminster Council to drop their proposed byelaw to ban soup-runs to the homeless.


Criminalising charity is an offence against common decency, common values and common sense.


The ban will not solve the problem of homelessness, it is an insult to personal choice and human decency – and its only legacy will be to punish some of the most vulnerable members of our society.


The act of sharing food should be a personal choice, not a criminal offence.


Please drop this misguided, mean-spirited and authoritarian proposal before it’s too late.

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