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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many homeless people have died on the street in each of the last five years.

The Office for National Statistics began to produce estimates of deaths of homeless people in England and Wales in 2017 and the most recent publication covered deaths in 2020. There were an estimated 688 deaths of homeless people registered in England and Wales in 2020, 778 estimated deaths in 2019, 726 deaths in 2018 and 597 in 2017.

These statistics are published online at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/previousReleases

These statistics do not indicate whether deaths occurred on the street or within accommodation. The definition of homelessness used in these statistics follows from what is available in death registrations data to identify affected individuals, which mainly includes people sleeping rough or using emergency accommodation such as homeless shelters and direct access hostels, at or around the time of death.

The Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and has published a strategy backed by £2 billion setting out how we will achieve that.