Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Tax-Free Childcare statistics, published March 2019, for what reasons the proportion of families in Northern Ireland using tax-free childcare remained unchanged between 2017-18 and 2018-19.

The proportion of used TFC accounts which are in Northern Ireland remained unchanged between 2017/18 and 2018/19 as the increase in the number of used accounts in Northern Ireland was proportional to the increase in the number of used accounts across the United Kingdom.

As shown in Table 5 of the most recent Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) Statistics release (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-june-2019) the number of used TFC accounts in Northern Ireland increased by 1,700 between 2017/18 and 2018/19.