Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment his Department made of the level of violent crime directed at homeless people.

We do not hold relevant data on levels of violent crime directed at homeless people, however in April 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy which sets out our evidence and analysis of violent crime.

The Strategy identifies a range of risk and protective factors that may increase an individual’s involvement in violent crime and the evidence suggests that being homeless is one of the markers for increased risk of both victimisation and perpetration of serious violence and also substance abuse. We also know that the homeless are particularly targeted by county lines gangs.