Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people affected by loneliness in 2016/17; and if his Department will publish such statistics for each local authority in 2016/17.

The Office for National Statistics monitors and reports on loneliness and social isolation. Most recently it has published estimates of loneliness nationally in 'Life in the UK' and regionally in 'Social Capital in the UK'. Small sample sizes make it difficult to publish estimates for local authorities. I refer my Hon Friend to the response published by the UK Statistics Authority in response to a question earlier this year. The response can be found at: http http://qna.files.parliament.uk/qna-attachments/794094/original/PQ115182.pdf