Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the merits of combining data on rough sleepers from official night counts with estimates and information from local agencies to improve data accuracy.

The official rough sleeping statistics published by my Department are collected with the assistance of Homeless Link who provide guidance to local authorities and independently validate the data that is provided.

In 2017 83 per cent of local authorities based their figures on estimates and in order to provide the number of rough sleepers, they consulted at least one local agency such as outreach workers, the police, the voluntary sector and faith groups who have regular contact with rough sleepers on the street and help with gathering intelligence on the level of rough sleeping in the local authority