§ Mr. LeighTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the mean average number of dependent children for each year since 1971 following the form of table 2.6 of "Living in Britain" for the family type whose head of household is(a) married, (b) cohabiting, (c) a lone mother and (d) a lone father. [4792]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Edward Leigh, dated 24 June 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply, as Director of the Office for National Statistics, to your recent question about the average number of dependent children.459WThe analysis requested is not currently available from published or unpublished tables produced from the General Household Survey (GHS). Table 2.6 in Living in Britain (SO, 1997) is the only breakdown of mean (average) number of dependent children by family type available for each year since 1971. Unpublished information on the average number of dependent children for lone mother families and lone father families is available for the 1994 and 1995 surveys. The figures are:
Families with dependent children: Mean average number of dependent children Family type 1994 1995 Married/cohabiting couples 1.9 (2,442) 1.9 (2,358) Lone mothers 1.7 (660) 1.7 (607) Lone fathers 1.3 (48) 1.5 (51) All lone parents 1.7 (708) 1.7 (658) All families with dependent children 1.8 (3,150) 1.8 (3,016) Base numbers are in brackets, and correspond to the number of respondents in the survey within each group.
§ Mr. LeighTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the age of the youngest dependent child by family type following the form of table 2.9 of "Living in Britain", indicating the percentages of children living in a household headed by a person who is(a) married, (b) cohabiting, (c) a lone mother, (d) a lone father and (e) a lone parent. [4844]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Edward Leigh, dated 24 June 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply, as Director of the Office for National Statistics, to your recent question about the age of youngest dependent children.The analysis requested is not currently available from published or unpublished tables produced from the General Household Survey (GHS). Table 2.9 in Living in Britain 1995 (SO, 1997) is the only breakdown of age of youngest dependent child by family type available. The unit of analysis (ie the base for calculating percentages) is 'all families with dependent children' rather than 'all children'.The forthcoming Office for National Statistics publication 'Social Focus on Families', to be published by the Stationery Office in August 1997, will include a table (based on 1995 data) showing the age of the youngest dependent child by family type using the categories a) married couples b) cohabiting couples c) all couples d) lone mothers e) lone fathers f) lone parents g) all families with dependent children. As with Table 2.9, the unit of analysis is 'all families with dependent children' rather than 'all children'.