§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a table showing the percentage of children receiving nursery education in Scotland below the age of five years in each of the past five years; and how this compares with England, Wales and other European Economic Community countries and Sweden and Norway.
§ Mr. Alexander Fletcher:Information in the form requested is not readily available for European Economic Community countries, Sweden or Norway and could not be provided except at disproportionate cost. Total numbers of pupils receiving pre-school training in European countries are given in the "Eurostat— Education and Training Statistics" and in the "Educational Statistics in OECD Member Countries", copies of which are available in the Library.
The following table shows children below the age of 5 receiving nursery education from education authorities in Scotland, England and Wales, expressed as a percentage of the total 3 and 4-year-old home population.
§ Mr. Alexander Fletcher:The number of potentially redundant employees in Lothian region covered by applications current in June of each year was as follows:
1979 118 1980 539 1981 2,161