Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the police take to ensure the safety of people sleeping rough.

Karen Bradley

The Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. One person without a home is one too many, which is why we will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.

We also want to help local authorities provide advice and assistance to those at risk of homelessness which is why we have protected the homelessness prevention funding for local authorities through the provisional local government finance settlement, totalling £315 million by 2019-20.

Decisions about frontline policing, and how resources are best deployed, are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. We have seen forces make significant changes to frontline policing to reflect the priorities of local people, including the most vulnerable. For example, several forces have established multi- agency teams to work collaboratively with other local public and voluntary sector services to tackle rough sleeping.