Written question asked by Danny Alexander (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 18 April 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 22 April 2008. It was answered by Stephen Timms (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 May 2008 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Children: Daycare

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of (a) pre-school age and (b) school-aged children in lower-income working families in England using formal child care in each year since 2004 as measured against the 2003-04 and 2004-05 averaged baseline; and what progress has been made towards meeting his Department's public service agreement target.

Answer: The data requested is not available.Information relating to what progress has been made towards meeting this public service agreement target is available in the departmental Autumn Performance Report 2007. This is available in the Library and can also be viewed at:"http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2007/autumnreport/full-report07.pdf"Figures showing progress towards public service agreement 3b will be available when the results of the 2007 Childcare Survey are published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families later this year.

Secondary information