§ Mr. BradleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on links between homelessness and offending in the last five years; and what conclusions were reached. [10447]
§ Mr. MacleanNo such studies have been commissioned to my Department, although a study of young people and crime contains limited data on young runaways. It found that 7 per cent. of a total sample of 1,721 young people in England and Wales aged 14 to 25 reported staying away from home for at least one night without their parents' knowledge prior to the age of 16 and that of these nearly half the females and nearly three quarters of the males had committed at least three offences or one serious offence at some time in their lives.