§ Ms HodgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what information is held by her Department on charges levied by private nursery schools; and if she will list the available data by geographical area;
to ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is her estimate of the total level of expenditure on private day care for children under the age of five years in the United Kingdom; and what this amount constitutes per head for children under the age of five years who are in the care of private day carers;
(2) what information she has as to the average cost of a child minder to the parent, by local education authority area.
§ Mr. BowisLocal authority social services departments, which register day care facilities for children aged under eight, have no responsibility under the Children Act 1989 to collect information on payments or charges for private care.
The precise information requested on national costs is not collected centrally, but relevant information for England of costs in 1990 of the different types of private day care was published in 1994 in the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys report "Day care services for children", a copy of which is in the Library—tables 6.4, 7.5, 8.10, 10.10, 11.10 and table 16.2.