Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what contingency plans his Department had made prior to the launch of the new childcare website in the event of problems with that website; and whether such plans were implemented when problems occurred.

HMRC continually reviews the performance of the childcare service and, working with their delivery partner National Savings and Investments, has made a range of improvements to the way the service works.

Whilst the majority of parents use the service without problems, some parents have experienced difficulties. HMRC has arrangements in place to ensure that no parents miss out financially as a result of these issues. Where parents have missed out on Tax-Free Childcare payments, HMRC pay compensation to reimburse them for missed government top-ups. HMRC have also issued 30 hours free childcare codes manually to parents, where technical issues prevented them from getting their code through the digital childcare service.