§ Mr. Gordon MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate his Department has made of the number of carers in the United Kingdom, broken down by the number of hours of care provided per week. [172752]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Gordon Marsden, dated 17 May 2004:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the estimate of the number of carers in the United Kingdom, broken down by the number of hours of care provided per week. (172752)Figures from the "Census 2001 Key Statistics for local authorities in England and Wales" indicate that there were 5,884,450 people in the United Kingdom providing unpaid care.The information below has been extracted from the CD supplement to the "Census 2001 Key Statistics for local authorities in England and Wales", which is available in the House of Commons Library. The table shows the distribution of these carers according to the number of hours of care provided per week.
Number of people providing unpaid care in the United Kingdom United Kingdom All Carers Provision of unpaid care Area All Carers Provides care: 1 to 19 hours Provides: care 20 to 49 hours Provides: care 50 or more hours United Kingdom 5,884,450 3,971,829 661,952 1,250,669 Source: Table KS08 Census 2001 Key Statistics for local authorities in England and Wales