HC Deb 25 January 1983 vol 35 c374W
Miss Joan Lestor

asked the Minister for the Civil Service whether any studies have been carried out as to the provision of workplace nurseries in Government Departments since 1970.

Mr. Hayhoe

[pursuant to his reply, 21 January 1983]: The Kemp Jones committee on the employment of women in the Civil Service, which was set up in 1970, recommended that a nursery should be set up for an experimental period. A purpose-built nursery for the use of civil servants was opened at Llanishen in 1973. It was closed in 1978 because of a lack of demand and the high running costs involved. Plans for a second project in Croydon were then abandoned. The report "Equal Opportunities for Women in the Civil Service"—HMSO, December 1982—whose recommendations are currently being considered, describes the nursery experiment, and the subsequent experience of other Civil Service child care arrangements, in more detail.