Written question asked by Tom Cox (Labour) on Wednesday, 20 December 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 24 January 2001. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Wednesday, 24 January 2001 on behalf of the Office for National Statistics.

Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many single parent families there are where the sole parent is (a) the mother and (b) the father; how many children under the age of five years are living in a one parent family. - Inc text of letter from John Kidgell of the Office for National Statistics.

Answer: Mr. Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many single parent families there are where the sole parent is (a) the mother and (b) the father; [144129] (2) how many children under the age of five years are living in a one parent family. [144138] Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply. Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 24 January 2001: The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Questions on the numbers of lone mother and lone father families and also the numbers of children aged under five within these families (144129, 144138). I am replying in his absence. The latest available, most reliable estimates are from the 1996 General Household Survey. An explanation of the method used in making these estimates can be found in the article entitled "One-parent families and their dependent children in Great Britain" published in Population Trends 91. Using this method, it has been estimated that there were 1.60 million lone-parent families with dependent children in Great Britain in 1996. From this provisional estimate, the numbers of lone mother and lone father families are estimated to be 1.46 million and 0.14 million, respectively. The comparable 1996 estimate for the number of children aged under five living in one-parent families, in Great Britain is 0.73 million.

Secondary information