asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make arrangements to collect and publish boarding-out rates for foster children for each local authority in England and Wales, on a similar basis to those published in answer to a Question of the hon. Member for Stockport, North for 1st January 1978, for either 1st January 1979 or 1st April 1979.

No. The cost of repeating this special exercise for the suggested dates would not be justified. The information already published has been taken into account by the local authority associations in guidance about boarding out allowances they issued to local authorities in September 1978.