Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Children and Families of 6 November 2017, on free childcare, Official Report, column 1182, what plans her Department has to introduce a mechanism to allow early years settings to provide detailed information on the reasons underlying the costs of nursery provision.

The Minister for Children and Families has been clear that where providers feel unable to deliver 30 hours of free childcare on government funding, they are welcome to share with him, if they feel able to do so, detailed financial information on their costs and revenues. This is so that we can understand their concerns in more detail. They can supply information to the Minister for Children and Families through publically available communication channels.