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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data‑collection requirements her Department places on homelessness‑service providers receiving public funding, including St Mungo’s, regarding the recording of (a) sex, (b) nationality, (c) ethnicity, and (d) immigration status of service users.

MHCLG collects accredited official statistics on the number of households owed support through statutory homelessness duties from local authorities in England via the Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC). This includes the sex of the main applicant and household members, as well as main applicant ethnicity, and nationality. There is no requirement to directly record immigration status as a part of the return, however some information on immigration status is recorded based on how this relates whether or not the household is eligible for statutory homelessness support. The latest data is available here.

MHCLG also collects official statistics on the estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night between 1 October and 30 November each year and some basic demographics details (age, gender, nationality) from local authorities in England. The latest data is available here. Alongside, MHCLG collects management information to understand how far rough sleeping is prevented wherever possible, and where it does occur, if it is rare, brief, and non-recurring from local authorities in England, which includes information on the number of people sleeping rough over the month by gender, nationality and immigration status. The latest data is available here.

MHCLG does not directly commission services, including any from St Mungo’s. Local authorities may provide homelessness services themselves or commission other organisations, including charities such as St Mungo’s, to deliver services on their behalf. We do not collect data directly from these commissioned providers, but where services are commissioned, data reported by local authorities may originate from those providers. This may be more common for specialist rough sleeping services.