§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Minister for the Civil Service, pursuant to the answer of 7 July,Official Report, column 321, to the hon. Member for Oxford, East (Mr. Smith) concerning child care facilities, if he will publish in the Official Report the total number of whole-time equivalent child care places currently organised in Government Departments and the percentage of Government Departments offering full-time child care facilities.
§ Mr. Luce[holding answer 18 July 1989]: The information is not held centrally as Departments have discretion to set up and support child care schemes. As far as I am aware, there are currently 42 full-time home-based child care places directly supported by the Department of Social Security in Newcastle. There are firm plans for three value-for-money nurseries at Home Office (Croydon), Ministry of Defence (London) and Civil Service college (Sunningdale). Fifteen departments are running holiday schemes for school-aged children for between three and 10 weeks a year and the number of schemes is increasing. In February this year, Government Departments were given the freedom to provide ongoing financial support for child care schemes where these offer good value for money. Real progress is now being made to expand child care arrangements to help our recruitment and retention needs in the 1990s.