§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the latest available figures for the number of children in local authority care because their family is homeless; and if he will give this information for England as a whole, greater London, the metropolitan authorities excluding London, non-metropolitan authorities, and for each English local authority area.
§ Mrs. CurrieA child may be taken into care for a number of reasons of which homelessness may be a contributory factor, although not identified as a specific cause in the statistics. I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him on 6 November 1986 at column594–96 which gave the 1984 figures by local authorities where the specific cause for a child being in care was that his or her family had been made homeless. The additional information requested is given in the table:
Number Metropolitan district 384 Shire counties 244
Worcester and District Health Authority Bromsgrove and Redditch Health Authority Revenue Capital Revenue Capital £ million £ million £ million £ million 1982–83 35.5 2.0 18.1 1.2 1983–84 38.0 1.4 19.7 6.7 1984–85 40.0 1.9 21.4 10.3 1985–86 42.8 3.0 23.2 7.2 Notes:
(1) The figures for revenue expenditure are those shown in the annual financial accounts of the health authorities. Those for capital expenditure also include expenditure specifically on behalf of those districts which is shown in the annual accounts of the West Midlands regional health authority.
(2) Expenditure on family practitioner services is excluded although for Worcester, the figures for the years 1982–83 to 1984–85 include a small element representing family practitioner committee administration expenses.