§ Mr. Simon CoombsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people sleeping rough were counted in the 1991 census in England and Wales.
§ Mr. DorrellThe Registrar General for England and Wales informs me that 2,703 people—1,275 in London and 1,428 elsewhere—were counted as sleeping rough on the night of 21 to 22 April 1991 at 444 sites which had been identified beforehand by voluntary organisations, local authorities, and churches. These sites, spread throughout the country, were visited by specially recruited enumerators, many of whom also worked for voluntary organisations. The count does not include those who spent census night in a hostel or shelter or some other form of accommodation, but who occasionally sleep rough; nor does it include any people who slept rough on census night but not on identified sites. Some of these will have been counted as part of the normal enumeration.
The corresponding figures for sites in individual local authority areas will be published around the end of July in a census monitor. Final figures for local areas, including any people sleeping rough who were enumerated away 335W from the identified sites, will be given in the series of county reports scheduled for publication between December 1991 and October 1992. Those reports will include information about the age and sex of people sleeping rough.