asked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the average cost to local authorities, as notified to his Department, of keeping children between the ages of (a) five to 11 years and 11 to 16 years in care; and what range of costs the average covers.

Information is not available in the form requested. However, data published by the CIPFA statistical information service gives average figures for the Welsh counties as follows:

Children—residential accommodation Gross cost per child week excluding capital charges 1985–86 actuals (£)
	Observation and assessment centres	Community homes with education1	Other community homes and hostels1
Clwyd	280·33	—	205·41
Dyfed	204·72	—	225·39
Gwent	317·40	277·40	285·32
Gwynedd	203·63	—	212·06
Mid Glamorgan	798·21	434·10	206·12
Powys	—	—	147·68

Registration of cancers 1974–83
	1974–78	1974–78	1974–78	1979–83	1979–83	1979–83
	number	annual rate per 100.000 population	standardised registration rate	number	annual rate per 100,000 population	standardised registration rate
All leukaemias (ICD 204–208)
North Wales coast (Clwyd)	102	13·9	132	111	14·0	131
North Wales coast (Gwynedd)	92	11·4	109	104	12·8	117
North Wales coast	194	12·6	120	215	13·4	124
Wales	1,309	9·4	100	1,401	10·0	100
All malignancies (ICD 140–208)
North Wales coast (Clwyd)	3,813	520·2	110	4,070	515·0	10S
North Wales coast (Gwynedd)	3,898	483·9	104	4,283	527·6	104
North Wales coast	7,711	501·2	107	8,353	521·4	104
Wales	57,839	413·2	100	64,490	458·4	100

These confirm the elevated rates derived from the 1974 to 1978 quinquennial report of the Wales cancer registry. There is no evidence of a readily identifiable cause for this