Nurseries (Hansard, 24 July 1991)

§ Ms. Armstrong
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many new health authority nurseries have opened during the past 12 months; and what proportion is currently registered;
(2) what proportion of health authorities and trusts provide subsidies for nursery places for their employees.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
This information is not collected centrally at present.
We anticipate that some information will be available by the autumn, and will arrange for details to be placed in the Library.

§ Ms. Armstrong
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what extra resources will be made available to local authorities to register and inspect nurseries as required by the Children Act 1989.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael) on 20 June at column300.

§ Ms. Armstrong
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to monitor the effects of the changes in staff-child ratios in nurseries introduced by the Children Act 1989.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
Local authority social services departments will monitor the functioning of individual day nurseries as part of their regulatory function under the Children Act 1989.
The Department will review the advice on day care staff: child ratios and space standards issued in volume 2 of the Children Act guidance and regulations series when it has been in operation for two years.

§ Ms. Armstrong
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new nurseries have been established during the past 12 months on Crown property.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
Information in the form requested is not available centrally. There are currently 17 civil service nurseries, of which 15 have been opened since 1 July 1990.
Provisional statistics on day nurseries collected by the Department on children's day care facilities published 684W annually estimate that in March 1990 there were 60 day nurseries which were exempt from the requirement to register under existing legislation (a net increase of nine over the previous 12 months). The majority of that figure are likely to be on crown premises.