§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest figure for the number of single parent families in the United Kingdom; and how this compares with corresponding figures five and 10 years previously.
§ Mr. NewtonPreliminary estimates, subject to revision in the light of detailed results from the 1981 census, suggest that there were about 900,000 single-parent families in Great Britain in April 1981. The estimates for mid-1976 and mid-1971 were 750,000 and 570,000 respectively.