Response 4005707

Response to request for information

Reference

4005707

Response date

12 May 2026

Request

We would like to know about any young people aged 16 to 24 who approached you as a main applicant during the financial year 2025-2026 because they were homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The information we are requesting falls under the Housing Act 1996 which has been amended to include the new duties brought in by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, and the Children Act 1989.

Response

Refusal Notice – Section 12 (Cost of Compliance Exceeds Appropriate Limit)
The information requested is not held in a way that allows it to be readily extracted from our case management system by the specific age ranges breakdowns, gender, nationality and categories you have requested.

To provide this data would require the creation of a bespoke report by our system provider. External supplier costs for producing such a report are estimated to exceed £1,200 (plus VAT), which is significantly above the statutory “appropriate limit” of £450 set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (equivalent to 18 hours of officer time at £25 per hour).

As a result, we are refusing this part of your request under Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 16 Duty to Advise and Assist
We are keen to assist where possible and can offer the following:

We may be able to provide high-level homelessness statistics that are already routinely reported, for example through H-CLIC returns, although these are not available in the specific age breakdown (16 to 24) requested.

Please note that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) publishes aggregated homelessness data via the H-CLIC dataset, which may assist your research, although we acknowledge it does not fully meet your requirements for age-specific breakdowns.

Review

Please would it be possible for you to provide just the total figure for 16 to 24 year olds who presented themselves as homeless or at risk of homelessness, as main applicant in financial year 2024/25?

Response

Unfortunately we have the same issue in relation to needing to create a bespoke report so it would exceed the cost of compliance and the section 12 exemption would be applicable.