§ Mr. Lomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many one-parent families there are in the United Kingdom;
(2) the total number of one-parent families, how many are widows, widowers, divorcees, separated, or single girls who have never married.
§ Mr. Deakins,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st December 1978; Vol. 959, c. 411], gave the following information:
I regret that, as indicated in the following table, recent information is available only for Great Britain and it is not possible to classify lone fathers as my hon. Friend has requested.
Estimated Numbers of One-Parent Families in Great Britain in 1976 Sex and marital status Number Mothers Single 130,000 Widowed 115,000 Divorced 230,000 Separated (married) 185,000 Total 660,000 Fathers Total 90,000 Total 750,000 Further information, including a discussion of the difficulties of making regular and detailed estimates of the numbers and family characteristics of one-parent families in the years between censuses of the population, is contained in the September 1978 issue of Population Trends.