Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the amount paid in business rates by (a) private, (b) volunteering and (c)independent childcare providers in the last 12 months.

Our Early Years National Funding Formula for three and four year olds contains an Area Cost Adjustment that includes a premises element based on rateable values. We have recently commissioned new research to provide us with further robust and detailed data of the costs of delivering childcare for under five year olds using a representative sample of early years providers.