§ Mr. Hobdenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children in Brighton have been forcibly removed from the care of their parents and taken into the care of the local authority because of the lack of housing in each of the years 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsSuch removal requires a court order committing the child to the care of the local authority as being in need of care, protection or control. The number of children received into the care of the Brighton county borough council under such orders is shown at A of the following Table, but I have no information on the number of these cases, if any, in which lack of housing was a consideration before the court.
In cases where the local authority considers it necessary to receive a child into care because the family is homeless, no question of compulsion normally arises, and the child is received under section 1 of the Children Act, 1948. The numbers are at B of the Table. The figures at A and B are mutually exclusive. The numbers received for all reasons combined are shown for comparison at C.
local authorities in respect of such children are not recorded in national statistics.