§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will produce a table showing the total number of children who are in local authority care because their family is homeless, indicating (a) the number of cases where homelessness is a contributory factor but not the specific cause for the child being taken into care as well as (b) the number of cases where homelessness has been identified as the specific cause; and if he will give this information for Scotland as a whole, for each region and for each local authority district.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe information given in the table relates to those children in care at 31 March 1983 where homelessness of the child's family was identified as the90W primary reason why the child was originally taken into care. No information is available on the number for whom homelessness was a contributory factor but not the specific cause of the child being taken into care.
The table relates to Scotland except Strathclyde region; no information is available from Strathclyde.
Region Local Government District Total Regional Total Orkney — — Shetland — — Western Isles 1 1 Highland Caithness — Sutherland — Ross and Cromarty — Skye and Lochalsh — Lochaber — Inverness 6 Badenoch and Strathspey — Nairn — 6 Grampian Moray — Banff and Buchan — Gordon — Aberdeen 29 Kincardine and Deeside 4 33 Tayside Angus 1 Dundee 16 Perth and Kinross 6 23 Fife Kirkcaldy 4 North East Fife 1 Dunfermline 15 20 Lothian West Lothian 4 City of Edinburgh 22 Midlothian — East Lothian 2 28 Central Clackmannan 1 Stirling 2 Falkirk 3 6 Borders Tweeddale — Ettrick and Lauderdale 7 Roxburgh — Berwickshire — 7 Dumfries and Wigtown — Galloway Stewartry — Nithsdale 1 Annandale and Eskdale 4 5 Total for Scotland (Excluding Strathclyde) = 129 Of the 129 children shown in the table, 98 had been in care for more than five years. Of the 22 children taken into care because of homelessnesss between 31 March 1982 and 31 March 1983 in Scotland outside Strathclyde only six remained in care at 31 March 1983.