SCOTLAND has led the way in tackling homelessness among new refugees and the rest of the UK should learn from its example, according to researchers.

The success of using devolved housing policy to address this issue will be highlighted at the first “evidence week” being held at Holyrood later this month.

During the event, which has been held in other parliaments such as London and Ireland, voters from across Scotland will be able to put questions directly to MSPs, influential policymakers and chairs of prominent committees.

MSPs will also be briefed by world-leading researchers on important policy issues, with research presented on topics such as crime rates, climate change and equality.

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Among the experts taking part is Dr Meng Le Zhang, from the University of Sheffield, who will discuss how changes to housing legislation in 2003 reduced homelessness among refugees.

In a briefing video he said: “When new asylum seekers come to the UK they are often destitute and the Home Office will provide housing for destitute asylum seekers. It will send them at random to regions across the UK to do so.

“When these asylum seekers become new refugees, they are still destitute but their asylum support is withdrawn and they are given 28 days to evict their homes. This leaves them in danger of becoming homeless and it is pretty obvious that becoming homeless is detrimental to integration of new refugees into Scottish society.

“It is a very bad start to their life in the UK.

“In 2003 the Homelessness Act passed in Scotland and this gave refugees new rights to social housing.

“Although we cannot exactly say what homelessness rates were like before this policy began, we do know this policy changed things.”

Zang explained evidence from a postal survey sent out by the Home Office in the mid-2000s showed that new refugees in Scotland were more likely to answer it – indicating they were not homeless.

He added: “We have evidence from that [survey] that Scottish policy reduced new refugee homelessness by at least nine percentage points.

“Other devolved regions can learn from what Scotland did. Refugee homelessness likely remains an issue in these other regions and while asylum policy is not devolved, housing policy is – and Scotland came up with a very clever way to help refugees integration.

“The Scottish Parliament can support efforts to better publicise this to other regions so they can try that on their own.”

The Holyrood Evidence Week, which is a joint initiative between the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) and charity Sense About Science, will take place online between March 21-25.

Tracey Brown, director of Sense about Science, said: “The work of Holyrood creates a far-ranging need to use and scrutinise evidence, from economic forecasts to environmental monitoring.

“In a single day MSPs may have to navigate complex policy issues such as homelessness, rural deprivation and indeed the pandemic, while approving measures to counter climate change and investigating the diverse issues affecting their constituents.

“Everyone depends on their resources and evidence know-how. This is why constituents and researchers are joining MSPs to launch Holyrood’s first Evidence Week.” 

Graeme Cook, of SPICe, added: “Just as evidence-based policy development is important, so too is evidence-based scrutiny and law-making. These are key roles for the Scottish Parliament.”