asked the Secretary of State for Social Services 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 (b) 11 to 16 years in care; and what range of costs the average covers.

Information is not collected centrally in the form requested. Some information about local authority expenditure on children in care is, however, published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in its "Personal Social Services Statistics" publications, copies of which are available in the Library.