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<p>The Ministry of Housing, Commnunities and Local Government does not collect any
statistics on the number of homeless camps who have been forcibly removed by local
authorities.</p><p>The Guardian article on 17 June 2019 says the estimate is based
on a Freedom of Information request to all councils in the UK about how many homeless
encampments they had cleared since 2014, how many complaints about encampments they
had received and details on charges for confiscated tents and possessions. The article
says ‘an encampment was defined as a location where one or more homeless people were
living in the area in private or public land’. 336 local authorities out of total
of 408 in the UK provided a response. No further details about the overall quality
and robustness of these statistics is provided so we are unable to make an assessment
of the accuracy of these findings.</p><p>The Guardian article is available at the
following link: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/17/removal-of-homeless-camps-trebles-as-charities-warn-of-out-of-control-crisis"
target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/17/removal-of-homeless-camps-trebles-as-charities-warn-of-out-of-control-crisis</a></p><p>These
statistics do not adhere to same rigour as government statistics. The Rough Sleeping
Statistics, published on 31 January 2019, which are produced in compliance with the
UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics, include people sleeping
rough in makeshift camps but no separate figures about the types of sites where people
are sleeping rough are recorded or whether they have been forcibly removed by local
authorities.</p><p>These statistics show the total number of people counted or estimated
to be sleeping rough in each local authority area in England, on a single night in
Autumn 2018 was 4,677. This was down by 74 people or 2 per cent from the 2017 total
of 4,751 and was up 2,909 people or 165 per cent from the 2010 total of 1,768. Local
authorities use a specific definition to identify people sleeping rough. This includes
people sleeping or who are about to bed down in open air locations and other places
including tents, cars, and makeshift shelters. The full definition of people sleeping
rough is as follows:</p><p><em>People sleeping, about to bed down (sitting on/in or
standing next to their bedding) or actually bedded down in the open air (such as on
the streets, in tents, doorways, parks, bus shelters or encampments). People in buildings
or other places not designed for habitation (such as stairwells, barns, sheds, car
parks, cars, derelict boats, stations, or “bashes” which are makeshift shelters, often
comprised of cardboard boxes). The definition does not include people in hostels or
shelters, people in campsites or other sites used for recreational purposes or organised
protest, squatters or travellers. Bedded down is taken to mean either lying down or
sleeping. About to bed down includes those who are sitting in/on or near a sleeping
bag or other bedding.</em></p><p><br>These statistics are available at the following
link: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018</a>.</p><p>This
Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should
ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government
Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people
who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping
once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness
and rough sleeping over the spending review period. This year, Rough Sleeping Initiative
investment totals £46 million and has been allocated to 246 areas – providing funding
for an estimated 750 additional staff and over 2,600 bed spaces.</p>
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