§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the special measures taken by Her Majesty's Government to protect homeless people in Scotland from the recent bad weather conditions; and if he will make it his policy to collect urgently and centrally information about the number of people sleeping rough.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonLocal authorities, with their statutory responsibilities for helping the homeless and for dealing with emergencies, are best placed to determine the measures needed in their areas and to take appropriate action. Local authority housing and social work departments have not given us evidence to indicate that sleeping rough is a significant problem in their areas; while precise figures on the number of people sleeping rough are not available, advice from local authorities and voluntary bodies is that the number in Scotland at any one time is very small. Arrangements are being made to enumerate those sleeping rough on census night, 21 April 1991.