Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the relationship between employees' working hours and the cost associated with childcare.

The Government wants to help more parents into work and support hard-working parents with the cost of childcare.

We have introduced Universal Credit, the Government’s flagship welfare reform, which meets up to 85 per cent of childcare costs for those in work.

We are extending the childcare entitlement to 30 hours per week for three- and four- year olds from working families from September 2017. Providers can offer all of the entitlements between 6am and 8pm, supporting parents who work non-standard hours.

We are implementing Tax-free Childcare from 2017, which will help with the cost of childcare – it is worth up to £2,000 per child per year, and up to £4,000 for disabled children.

Total Government spending – including the early years entitlements, Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit – will increase from £5bn in 2015-16 to over £6bn by 2019-20.