Rough Sleepers (Hansard, 18 December 2002)

§ Mr. Paul Marsden
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list(a) the number of staff in and (b) the cost of the (i) Rough Sleepers Unit and (ii) Homelessness Directorate in each year since each was established. [87434]

§ Mrs. Roche
The information is in the table.

year Number of staff Administration budget cost (£ million)

1999–2000 19 0.73

2000–01 36 1.34

2001–02¹ 30 1.3

¹ Homelessness Directorate which incorporated the Rough Sleepers Unit was announced by Lord Falconer on 3 December 2001 and came into being on 1 April 2002.

872W

§ Simon Hughes
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his answer of 10 December 2002,Official Report, column 267W, if he will require the Rough Sleepers Unit to record rough sleepers who are also asylum seekers separately from other rough sleepers for the purposes of the street count. [87932]

§ Mrs. Roche
Information from counts undertaken by local authorities does not identify rough sleepers who are asylum seekers. As rough sleepers are not woken, it is not possible to obtain information on their personal status. However outreach teams are encouraged to get as much information about people sleeping rough in their areas as possible so that individual solutions can be found to their rough sleeping where it is possible.

year	Number of staff	Administration budget cost (£ million)
1999–2000	19	0.73
2000–01	36	1.34
2001–02¹	30	1.3
¹ Homelessness Directorate which incorporated the Rough Sleepers Unit was announced by Lord Falconer on 3 December 2001 and came into being on 1 April 2002.