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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce mortality among homeless people.

Every person who dies while they do not have a place to call home is one too many and we have a moral duty to act.

It should not happen that people die prematurely and on the street because they are homeless. Whilst we recognise that suitable housing is a key part of the solution, health services have a significant role to play, alongside other public services.

My Department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when they need it. In its long-term plan, the National Health Service committed to investing up to £30 million extra on meeting the needs of rough sleepers. This will ensure that the parts of England most affected by rough sleeping have better access to specialist homelessness NHS mental health support, integrated into existing outreach services.

We are also ensuring that where a homeless person dies, or is seriously injured, Safeguarding Adult Reviews take place where appropriate, so that local services can learn lessons from these tragic events to better prevent them from happening in the future.