§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many households were officially registered as homeless for each of the last 10 years to the latest available date.
§ Mr. StanleyI refer my hon. Friend to a series of documents "Homeless Households Reported by Local Authorities in England", copies of which are available in the Library. The series gives statistics from 1975 to the first half of 1980 collected by my Department and summary data for earlier years compiled by the DHSS. The basis on which the statistics are compiled has changed twice since 1970 and a consistent series for the last 10 years is not available.