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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how they plan to provide sufficient Gypsy and Traveller sites to meet the recommendations of (1) the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, (2) the UN Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, (3) the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, (4) the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and (5) the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; and whether the response to their consultation on powers for dealing with unauthorised development and encampments will address this issue.

The Planning Policy for Travellers Sites asks local planning authorities to assess the need for traveller sites in their area, and to identify sites to meet that need. Local authorities are best placed to make decisions about the number and location of such sites locally, having had due regard to national policy and local circumstances. Our recent consultation on unauthorised encampments has sought views on whether there are barriers to the provision of sites, and whether there is anything Government can do to help overcome them. We are currently considering the responses to this consultation.