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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that women who are experiencing (a) homelessness and (b) rough sleeping are receiving the support they need.

We know that women sleeping rough have different experiences and needs to men, particularly relating to violence and abuse, and that female rough sleepers can be less visible than other rough sleepers as a result. It is important rough sleeping services meet the needs of women.

As part of our Ending Rough Sleeping Strategy, we committed to the creation of an operational risk assessment tool which will help local authorities to prevent rough sleeping. The tool will be developed to consider various factors that contribute to rough sleeping, including how best to support different cohorts such as women.

The tool will enable local networks to allocate Rough Sleeping Initiative and other funding streams appropriately to support tailored and targeted interventions for groups like women sleeping rough who are not known to outreach services.