Housing advice in Scotland

1. Every local authority must secure that advice and information about:

a) homelessness and the prevention of homelessness,
b) any services which may assist a homeless person or assist in the prevention of homelessness, is available free of charge to any person in the authority's area.

2. The Scottish Ministers may issue guidance, either to local authorities generally or to a particular authority, as to the form and content of such advice and information.

Although the guidance has been 'live' since 1 April 2002, the Scottish Executive has indicated that it does not expect full compliance with the duty until 1 April 2003 and that it is prepared to take comments on the guidance up until 6 September 2002. These are Shelter's comments.