To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of (a) three-year-olds and (b) four-year-olds currently have nursery places in (i) Newham, (ii) Tower Hamlets, (iii) Hackney, (iv) Redbridge, (v) Waltham Forest and (vi) Barking and Dagenham; and what are the corresponding figures for the United Kingdom. [6815]
[holding answer 7 July 1997]: Provisional figures for 1997 show that the percentages of three and four-year-olds in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained primary schools in England were 33 and 24 per cent. respectively. Figures for percentages of three and four-year-olds for local education authority areas in England are not sufficiently reliable for publication.Provisional estimates of the percentages of pupils under five years of age in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained primary schools for each local education authority area as requested and England are shown in the following table.
| Percentage1of children under five years of age in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained primary schools | |
| January 1997 (provisional estimates) | |
| Number | |
| Newham | 53 |
| Tower Hamlets | 61 |
| Hackney | 32 |
| Redbridge | 25 |
| Waltham Forest | 39 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 48 |
| England | 29 |
| 1 Number of pupils under five years of age in relation to number of children aged three and four at 31 December 1996. | |