Temporary Accommodation Statistics
These figures show a snapshot figure of the number of households in Temporary Accommodation per local authority at 31st March each year.
Data
Temporary Accommodation Statistics
Description
Homeless applicants may be placed in temporary accommodation while the Local
Authority assesses their application or while awaiting the offer of a permanent let.
The figures on households in temporary accommodation relate to households
which have been placed in temporary accommodation by a Local Authority under
the Homeless Persons legislation. This will include households for whom the Local
Authority's decision and final action is still pending, as well as households which
were secured such accommodation as a final action by the authority under the
legislation. The data provide a snapshot picture of the numbers in temporary
accommodation as at the last day in each quarter and are collected in the summary
HL2 return.
Metadata
| Theme | Housing |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Scottish Government |
| License | UK Open Government Licence (OGL) |
| Published | |
| Last updated | |
| Next update | 1 Sep 2026 |
| Update frequency | annual |
| Reference period | 2008 to 2025 |
| Geographic coverage | Council Areas, Country |
| Contact | homelessness_statistics_inbox@gov.scot |
Data quality
Completeness
Operation of the Homelessness Persons Legislation in Scotland is available on the Scottish Government website.
Tables included in the bulletin are also available to download from website in Excel. The publication is available as a web page and in PDF formats.
Uniqueness
Not assessed
Consistency
HL2 Figures provide a snapshot number of households in Temporary Accommodation. This should not be mistaken for the total number of households in temporary accommodation over a given financial year.
Timeliness
Operation of the Homelessness Persons Legislation in Scotland is published around five months after the end of the relevant period. Data gathering and error correction errors from all local authorities usually takes around 3 months to complete. The report production timetable takes a further month. There is one month extra in the timetable as a contingency against staff illness and unforeseen circumstances:
\u2022 Annual data for 1 April to 31 March are published in August.
Validity
Operation of the Homelessness Persons Legislation in Scotland is used to monitor trends in homelessness and to provide information on the implementation and effectiveness of Scottish homelessness legislation. Crucially, this statistical output is used to monitor the implementation of the Scottish Government's 2012 homelessness target. That is, by 31st December 2012, the priority need test should be abolished.
The Homelessness Statistics User Group meets twice yearly and is consulted on to ensure that Operation of the Homelessness Persons Legislation in Scotland remain relevant to users and make best use of the available data.
Accuracy
Given the continuous nature of the recording system, figures are updated on an ongoing
basis and may differ from those previously published. There may be delays in
some cases being reported to the Scottish Government due to IT issues, quality
assurance processes and delayed entry of data - particularly at the end of the
financial year.
Quality management
The quality of these figures depends critically on the quality and consistency of
the information supplied to us by Local Authorities on the HL1 and HL2 returns.
The quality statement on the Scottish homelessness statistics website sets out the ways in
which we do this. The main focus of our systems is to ensure consistency
between the HL1 and HL2 returns and consistency of the case level information
within each HL1 return.
Additional details
Revisions
Our approach to revisions and corrections is set out in detail on the Scottish
homelessness statistics website. In summary,
published statistics are generally revised when the
figures next appear in any publication. However, if a revision is significant resulting
in a major change to the published figures a note showing the revisions will be
published as soon as possible on the homelessness statistics website.
Confidentiality policy
All disclosive figures are rounded to 5.