§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) men and (b) women are single parents in the UK. [115917]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 20 March 2000:
The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent question about the number of single parents in the United Kingdom. I am replying in Dr Holt's Absence.Latest estimates for the period September to November 1999 show that there were 166,000 male and 1,490,000 female single parents with dependent children. The estimates are drawn from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) household databases. Lone parents are defined in the LFS as those who are non-married, which includes single (never married), widowed, divorced, or separated, and not cohabiting.