Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Bridget Phillipson and Karl Turner(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)
8. What assessment she has made of the effect of recent changes in child care costs on the affordability of nursery care for families on low and medium incomes.
Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
13. What assessment she has made of the effect of recent changes in child care costs on the affordability of nursery care for families on low and medium incomes.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)
The cost of some of the most popular forms of child care has come down. We have seen that with nurseries, for example: the cost of nurseries is down by 2%, and the cost of childminders is down by 13%. But we are not complacent: we are funding 15 hours of free child care for all three and four-year-olds and all disadvantaged two-year-olds, and we are introducing tax-free child care for working families. This should be compared with the record of the previous Government, under which the cost of child care went up by 50% between 2002 and 2010.