§ Mr. Edward DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many places have been available in local authority-run playgroups in each of the past seven years for each local authority; and if he will make a statement. [117271]
§ Ms HodgeVirtually all playgroups are in the voluntary sector with only a few run by local education authorities. Information about places in local authority-run playgroups is contained in tables, copies of which have been placed in the Library. The Department has collected information on playgroup places in England only since 1998. Prior to 1998, information on playgroups was collected by the Department of Health and their national figures have also been shown in the table for completeness.
291WMy Department plans to publish provisional national information about places in local authority-run playgroups (as at 31 March 2000) in July.