Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will update the Rough Sleeping Strategy to include further provisions for mental health support for rough sleepers.

As a part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has committed to spending up to £30 million over five years on mental health services for rough sleepers, to ensure that the parts of England most affected by rough sleeping will have better access to specialist homelessness National Health Service mental health support, integrated with existing outreach services.

We are also providing £2 million in funding to test ways to improve access to health services for people with co-occurring mental ill-health and substance misuse problems who are currently, or at risk of returning to, sleeping rough.

The Government has announced £262 million of funding over four years for substance misuse treatment and recovery services for people experiencing rough sleeping or at risk of rough sleeping. Urgent access to mental health services will be an integral part of this approach, as many rough sleepers have both mental health and substance misuse needs.