§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the current total figures for 1991 are for(a) homeless persons on a regional basis, (b) the number of people on each housing waiting list, by district and (c) the number of district council/island authority houses left unlet for three months or more, in each authority area in Scotland.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe numbers of applicants under the homeless persons legislation assessed by local authorities as homeless as recorded in the returns submitted to the Scottish Office in the year ended 31 March 1990 are set out in the table. Comparable figures for 1991 are not yet available. Reliable information on the number of people on housing waiting lists is not held centrally. Local authority returns on their vacant stock do not identify those unlet for three months or more. The available information, which relates to dwellings available for letting which had been vacant for four months or more at 31 March 1990, was published in table 15 of "Scottish Office Statistical Bulletin HSU No 17". Copies were sent to all Members representing Scottish constituencies and are available in the House Library.
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Applicant households under the homeless persons legislation assessed as homeless, by region, 1989–90 Number Borders 114 Central1 2,096 Dumfries and Galloway 465 Fife 2,017 Grampian 2,653 Highland 525 Lothian 4,367 Strathclyde1 14,310 Tayside 1,584 Orkney Islands 14 Shetland Islands 109
Number Western Isles 58 1 Some returns are known to be outstanding.