asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish tables of the number of places available in each different type of local authority residential home for children and young people by region for 1975– 76.

The table below sets out the information requested as at 31st March 1976. The figures are provisional.£1 per week with effect from 1st April 1977, when the child benefit scheme begins.

Section 17 of the Child Benefit Act 1975 empowers my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services to make regulations reducing the amounts of certain other benefits on the introduction of child benefit; and Regulation 3(c) of the Child Benefit and Social Security (Fixing and Adjustment of Rates) Regulations 1976 (S.I. 1976 No. 1267) provides for the reduction of increases for child dependants payable with widowed mother's allowance and certain other benefits.