To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what child care provision his Department provides for pre-school age children of the Department's employees; what child care provision for school holidays and/or after-school care is provided for employees' children aged five and over; what plans there are for increasing provision in the next five years; and how these are to be funded.

The Department's central office at Newcastle operates a scheme of finding day-care parents for employees' children. It also runs holiday play schemes for employees' children in the Easter and summer holidays. Child care provision is one of the areas being examined in a review of opportunities available to women employees in the Department.