Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will fund research into the number of former members of the armed forces who are homeless; and if he will make a statement.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) strongly believes that no-one should be homeless, least of all someone who has served their country. However, there is no substantive evidence to suggest that veterans are over-represented in the homeless population. As part of the recently launched Veterans Strategy the Government has made clear its commitment to tackling rough sleeping and homelessness and ensuring that all veterans have a secure place to live.

We recognise that there are limited statistics on homelessness; that is the why the MOD and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are working together to gather more comprehensive data on this issue. The Combined Homelessness and Information Network statistics suggest that 3% of the rough sleeping population in London have served in the Armed Forces and other independent research shows that the rough sleeping figures for veterans are around 3-4% across the UK. The same research shows that that an individual is less likely to be homeless if they have served in the Armed Forces.