HC Deb 20 March 1996 vol 274 cc366-7
11. Mr. Pike

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will ensure that a place is available locally for all parents in receipt of a nursery voucher for their four-year-olds. [20133]

Mr. Robin Squire

I am confident that existing and new providers in the maintained, voluntary and private sectors will bring forward over time the places that parents want in exchange for nursery education vouchers.

Mr. Pike

The Minister will recognise that Burnley currently has one of the highest existing levels of nursery provision. He used the phrase "over time" in his answer—a phrase that was also used by the Secretary of State earlier this afternoon. What is the Minister going to say to the parents of children in Burnley and throughout the country who have a voucher and a four-year-old, but do not have a nursery place to which to send their child? Will not that piece of paper be totally worthless, like so many other Tory policies?

Mr. Squire

The hon. Gentleman has asked his question with no regard to the background against which we are planning this considerable expansion of places. He knows full well that, depending entirely on where one lives in the country, one may have no nursery place at all or have little or no choice. We already know that, as a result of the introduction of the voucher in phase 1, more places will be available in those four local education authorities—and what we have seen in those four local education authorities, we shall see across the country from April 1997.