§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for what reason Somerset has a lower proportion of three-year-olds in free early years places than the average figure for England; and if she will make a statement. [1385]
§ Mr. Timms[holding answer 4 July 2001]: Our commitment is to provide every three-year-old, whose parents want one, with a free nursery education place by September 2004. Local education authorities have chosen to make different levels of provision in the past. They have also been influenced by the fact that allocations of places, funded directly by the Government through the nursery education grant, were made on the basis of social disadvantage.
The Government are making available over £2 million to provide Somerset with 1,704 early education places for its three-year-olds. We are the first Government to make such funding specifically available.
§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will publish a table showing the percentage of three-year-olds with free nursery places in each education authority in England in each of the years 1998–99 to 2003–04 (planned); and if she will make a statement on her plans for increasing provision of free places for three-year-olds. [1632]
§ Mr. Timms[holding answer 4 July 2001]: We are committed to providing all three-year-olds, whose parents want one, with a free nursery education place by September 2004. Estimates of the percentage of three-year-olds already provided with a place in each area are not available to the Department, although local authorities may choose to make their own estimates based on local data.