Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the full cost of providing 30 hours of free childcare per week in a typical sized childcare setting.

The government published an assessment of the cost of childcare in 2015, following a thorough review of the evidence. The review is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-childcare-costs.

The government has consulted on providing an average funding rate to local authorities of £4.71 per hour for the government funded 3 and 4 year old offer, of which 95% must be passed to childcare providers. This is above the representative costs per hour for 3 and 4 year olds set out in the review of childcare costs. Providers should therefore not need to subsidise government funding to meet the full cost of providing the 3 and 4 year old offer.