Cutting statistics on homeless deaths won’t make problem disappear

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur has today criticised the Scottish Government’s decision to cut the frequency with which it publishes statistics on homeless deaths, reducing the publication from annual to every two years.

The move comes as the Scottish Government and the National Records of Scotland announced that it intended to scale back the frequency or content of some publications including:

• Households and Dwellings in Scotland: reducing from annual to every two years
• Small Area Population Estimates: releasing only final estimates and no provisional figures
• Alzheimer's and Other Dementia Deaths: reducing standalone publication from annual to every two years. Annual analysis on leading causes of death will continue to be published in another publication
• Homeless Deaths: reducing from annual to every two years
• Avoidable Mortality: converting to a data-only release
• Monthly Mortality Analysis, Scotland: reducing from monthly to quarterly

Commenting on the decision, Mr McArthur said:

“If you don’t have timely data on how often tragedies are taking place, you are ill equipped to tackle them.

“There were an estimated 231 deaths among homeless people in 2024 which shows what a long way there is to go in tackling both homelessness and its root causes.

“After nineteen years in government, the SNP have a housing emergency, a mental health crisis and a drug deaths tragedy to answer for.

“Cutting statistics on homeless deaths will not make the problem disappear.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats are doing all we can to unpick that damage, securing additional funding for areas including affordable housing and drug services.

“With more MSPs, we can go even further, confronting the housing emergency, repairing essential services, building more homes and giving everyone a safe and secure place to call their own.”