The following items are fromChildren & Parliament, autumn and winter 1999. Children & Parliament is an abstracting service based on Hansard and produced by the National Children's Bureau. It covers all parliamentary business affecting children and is available on subscription via the internet (http://candp.ncb.org.uk). TheChildren & Parliament web site provides direct links to full text Hansard, government department sites, the sites of the Office for National Statistics, Ofsted, and other relevant organisations. For further details contact Lisa Payne, Editor, Children & Parliament, National Children's Bureau, 8 Wakley Street, London EC1V 7QE, UK (tel: +44 (0) 171 843 6000; fax: +44 (0) 278 9512). (The Hansard reference is given in parentheses; from 17 November 1999 column numbers for written questions will be followed by W).

• The government is to establish 48 000 new free nursery places for 3 year olds in 1999–2000.

(27 July 1999, Col 165–167)

• The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 came into force in September 1999 and makes corporal punishment illegal for pupils in maintained and non-maintained schools and for children receiving nursery education.

(19 Oct 1999, Col 543)

• Recent government action against smoking includes the allocation of up to £60 million over 3 years to help health authorities develop specialist services, £47.5 million over 3 years to prepare a health education programme, NHS smoking cessation services in health action zones, draft regulations to …