§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his estimate of the number of one-parent families in Scotland and the number of dependent children in them; what percentage of families and children they represent; and how this compares with five years ago.
§ Mr. FairgrieveIt is difficult to make any close current estimate of the number of one-parent families, as explained by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security in her reply to the hon. Member for Wood Green (Mr. Race) on 6 May 1980, but 313W the hon. Member may find it helpful to refer also to my hon. Friend's reply to the hon. Member for Manchester, Central (Mr. Litherland) on 19 May 1980. A closer estimate will be possible when the results of the 1981 census are available.
Equally, there is no close estimate available for five years ago. An estimate for 1971, based on a 10 per cent. sample of census returns, showed that in Scotland there were 63,730 one-parent families with dependent children and 117,650 such children. These represented 9 per cent. of all families containing dependent children and 8 per cent. of all dependent children. The 1971 census definition of a dependent child included any child aged under 15 in the family and any single full-time student aged 15 to 24 in the family.—[Vol. 984, c. 93–4; Vol. 985, c. 56–60.]