Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide access to mental health services for homeless people.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Public Health England, and NHS England on provision of both mental and physical health services for rough sleepers to inform national priorities and local commissioning decisions.

The Government is committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and ending it by 2027. Our Rough Sleeping Strategy, which was published in August 2018, includes proper consideration of the needs of those with mental illness. As part of the Rough Sleeping Strategy, we are testing models of community-based provision designed to enable access to health and support services for people who are sleeping rough. This will include services to support people with both mental ill health and substance misuse issues.