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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families with children living in bed and breakfast have been so accommodated for more than six weeks; and how many families with children were living in bed and breakfast accommodation in (a) each local authority in the East Midlands and (b) England in each year since 2010.

The Department for Communities and Local Government collects figures for the number of households in temporary accommodation as snapshot figures at the end of each quarter. Theattached table shows the number of families with children who were accommodated in Bed & Breakfast hotels (including shared annexes) on 31^st December for each year 2010–2014, who were resident for more than 6 weeks, in the East Midlands and England.

Numbers for individual local authorities have not been provided, as they generally relate to very small numbers of households and therefore risk disclosing personal information.

The law is clear that bed and breakfast accomodation should only be used to house homeless in an emergency, and for no longer than six weeks.