§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many children were in care during the years 1972, 1973, 1974 and to the latest date available; and if she will give some indication of the costs involved.
§ Dr. OwenThe number of children in care of local authorities in England at 31st March each year, and local authority expenditure on children in care each year was as follows:
Number of children in care at 31st March Expenditure on children in care in year ending 31st March (thousands) £ million 1972 86.5 50.7 1973 88.8 58.7 1974 91.3 74.1 1975 94.2 102.6 (provisional) (estimated) The expenditure excludes adminstration and field social work costs which, for the later years, cannot be separately identified for these services, and does not take account of parental contributions. The expenditure figures are not directly comparable because the figure for the year ended 31st March 1972 includes items not included in the later years. More detailed information about children in care and the cost of keeping them in care is given in the annual White Paper "Children in Care in England and Wale ", the latest of which is for March 1974 (Cmnd 6147).