To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people have been accepted as homeless in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) south Tyneside, (c) the north-east and (d) England in each year since 1997. (291540)

Information about English local housing authorities' actions under the homelessness legislation (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected at local authority level, and published by the Department in the quarterly statistical release on statutory homelessness, available both in the Library and via the CLG website:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/homelessnessq22009

Data collected includes the number of households accepted by local housing authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore owed a main homelessness duty (to secure that suitable accommodation is available). The regional and national figures for the number of applicants accepted as owed a main duty, for each financial year since 1998-99 can be found in table 3 of this statistical release, and an extract which includes the 1997-98 figures for England and the north-east is provided in the following table.

For local authority level acceptance figures between 1997-98 and 2008-09, including those for South Tyneside, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) on 23 June 2009, Official Report, column 843W.

We do not centrally hold figures below local authority level.