Operation of the homeless persons legislation in Scotland: quarters ending 30 June and 30 September 2007 (including households in temporary accommodation at 31 December 2007)

Context

3. In interpreting the statistics and analyses in this release, it is important to bear in mind that the information is derived from councils' administration of homelessness legislation. Trends can be affected by legislative changes, changes in interpretation of legislation or guidance and by changes in local authority recording practice. Where these have been identified, these are highlighted in the description of the main trends.

4. In 2001, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation which placed additional duties on councils to provide a minimum of temporary accommodation, advice and assistance to all applicants assessed as homeless. In particular, from September 2002, councils have been required to provide temporary accommodation, advice and assistance to non-priority applicants who in the past would have received advice and assistance only. This has had a noticeable impact on applications, which has been reflected in changing assessments and outcomes for homeless people. Some tables in this release therefore present time series data so that this impact can be tracked.

5. The Homelessness Etc (Scotland) Act 2003 aims to ensure that by 2012 everyone assessed as being unintentionally homeless is entitled to settled accommodation. In the homelessness statistics we would generally expect to see progress towards this commitment reflected in increasing proportions of those applicants who are homeless assessed as also in priority need, and reducing proportions assessed as non-priority.

6. The Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order came into force in December 2004. This Order requires councils to ensure that households with children or pregnant women are not placed in unsuitable temporary accommodation, unless exceptional circumstances apply. Changes in the data collection to monitor the implementation of the Order are described in the notes section before the tables.