The homelessness picture, I think, is something that we should all be deeply ashamed of. More people have died on the streets of England and Wales in the last five years than the British army lost troops in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Homelessness is a choice, it isn't an accident, and we can choose to do something about it, or we can choose not to.

I'm pleased that the Welsh Government is finally working with Crisis to implement plans that aim to eradicate homelessness. Eliminating homelessness will save money. Implementing the Crisis report will cost Wales around £900 million over the next 20 years, but it will bring benefits of £1.5 billion. For the UK as a whole, those figures are even bigger, with spending of £40 billion needed to achieve benefits of £60 billion. So, I hope that the Minister will be implementing the recommendations of the homelessness action group and the Crisis report in full.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to every homeless person—every person is an individual. Someone with severe substance misuse problems clearly requires a different approach and different accommodation and support to someone who is homeless because of domestic abuse, and they in turn will need different support to someone who is in employment and has been evicted.

So, I'd like to see a clear action plan to do the following: first of all, replace priority need with a duty on local authorities to secure safe accommodation and support for everyone who is found to be homeless, alongside their duties to prevent homelessness; fund outreach programmes and emergency accommodation to get existing rough-sleepers off the streets; tackle the barriers that exist for people accessing shelters through reform of shelters and the environment that can exist in shelters; provide a range of different accommodation types that can be accessed by homeless people so there are safe places available for everyone; protect and increase funding for all shelters and refuges for those escaping abusive relationships; review and increase the support for the Supporting People budget, which helps to prevent homelessness; and support providers of housing first solutions for those homeless people with the most intense needs.

I welcome that rough-sleeping in winter was addressed in your statement, as this issue has been described as a national tragedy by Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes. You mentioned that you've received recommendations by experts from the homelessness action group yesterday on this particular problem, which you commit to taking on board urgently, and I hope these measures will help us see a decrease in the damaging impact of winter conditions on rough-sleepers this year.

So, questions, Minister: how can you reassure me that you take yesterday's recommendations and any future recommendations from the homelessness action group seriously? And how will you monitor the success of the Government's implementation of the recommendations in the spring?

A particularly pernicious piece of legislation in relation to rough-sleepers is the Vagrancy Act 1824, forcing rough-sleepers out of city centres. Criminalising homeless people for rough-sleeping and begging is archaic and it removes any dignity that a homeless person may retain. I, like many others, would like to see the Vagrancy Act abolished as it is in effect in Wales, but until then, I'd like to know what official discussions have been taking place with the police regarding the execution of this Act. Has the Welsh Government made representations to the police forces and local authorities in Wales to encourage and promote kinder methods of helping homeless people, rather that increased enforcement of the Vagrancy Act? They could, for example, decide not to operationally enforce the Vagrancy Act. Would you support such a course of action?