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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the methodology used for counting rough sleepers; and when guidance was last issued to local authorities on that methodology.

MHCLG published the latest official rough sleeping snapshot statistics on 27 February 2020. For more information see link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019

These Official Statistics are produced in accordance with the principles and practices of the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics and provide information about the estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night between 1 October and 31 November 2019 and some basic demographic details (i.e. age, gender, nationality). MHCLG is confident these statistics provide an accurate way of estimating the number of people sleeping rough across England on a single night and an indication of trends over time.

The snapshot figures are collected by outreach workers, local charities and community groups and are independently verified by Homeless Link. Every local authority is required to consult with at least one type of local agency to produce their snapshot figures. In 2019, 72 per cent of local authorities reported they had consulted with 5 different groups or more. Local authorities must involve volunteers who are independent of the council and its outreach team (e.g. non-commissioned services). Homeless Link will not verify the process if no local agencies, or only those that are part of, or commissioned by, the local authority are involved.

The latest guidance to local authorities on the official rough sleeping snapshot was published before the annual snapshot process began last year in August 2019 and is available here: https://www.homeless.org.uk/our-work/resources/counts-and-estimates-evaluating-extent-of-rough-sleeping

Alongside the publication of the 2019 annual rough sleeping statistics this week, MHCLG also published a technical report which outlines in detail how the statistics are collected, the quality assurance processes in place, recent improvements and the limitations so users are fully informed about the overall quality of the Rough sleeping snapshot statistics. For more information see link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019-technical-report