HC Deb 25 June 1985 vol 81 cc382-3W
Sir William Clark

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the number of one-parent families in Great Britain, differentiating between widows and widowers, divorcees and others.

Mr. John Patten

Taking account of results from the 1981 census and information from the general household survey for the years 1981–83 the best available estimates of the numbers of one-parent families in Great Britain are as follows:

1982 (thousands)
Lone mothers:
single 180
widowed 120

1982 (thousands)
divorced 350
separated 180
Lone fathers 100
930

Rugby District Health Authority*
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 †1984
NHS hospitals
In-patient cases 7,812 7,955 8,136 8,440 8,982 9,244
Day cases 426 477 581 635 749 827
New out-patient attendances 11,922 11,904 11,629 12,136 12,774 12,732
Total out-patient attendances 49,745 50,271 48,438 49,722 52,842 54,087
New accident and emergency attendances 16,425 16,850 17,456 18,297 18,354 18,527
Total accident and emergency attendances 22,950 21,716 22,537 25,487 27,079 27,768
Community health services
Health visitors: Total first visits ‡ ‡ ‡ 6,641 6,429 ‡
Home nurses: Persons treated ‡ ‡ ‡ 4,157 3,974 ‡
Number of children under 5 who attended Child Health Clinics ‡ ‡ ‡ 3,225 3,193 ‡
* Rugby Health District prior to 1 April 1982.
† Provisional.
‡ Not available.