Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 14 November 2016 to Question 52463, how (a) much of the £40 million available to the Early Years Capital Fund was allocated on conclusion of the bidding process, (b) many projects were approved in December in 2016 and (c) many of those projects were completed by August 2017.

We announced £100 million of capital funding to create 30-hours places for eligible children to help meet demand from hardworking parents.

The funding was allocated to over 350 projects in 125 local authorities in January and March 2017.

This funding supports the delivery of 30 hours’ free childcare for working parents of 3 to 4-year-olds. We cannot yet report on the total number of places created by this investment as many projects are still under construction. We are working closely with all projects awarded funding and will publish the outcomes in due course when all projects have completed.