Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of business rates revaluation on childcare providers, and (2) the provision of 100 per cent business rates applied to childcare providers in Scotland.

We are investing a record amount into the early years sector, spending approximately £6 billion per year by the period 2019 to 2020. This includes spending £1 billion per year to implement 30 hours of free childcare and to increase the hourly funding rates that we introduced in April 2017. The government has also increased Small Business Rate Relief and provided local authorities with funding to support £300 million of discretionary business rates relief. Local authorities are able to use this to support local nurseries.

The Department for Education’s increased level of investment was based on our ‘Review of Childcare Costs’, which was described as “thorough and wide-ranging” by the National Audit Office. The review, attached, looked at the costs of childcare provision, including business rates. We have commissioned new research from Frontier Economics to provide further data on the current cost of providing childcare, which will include the effect of business rates.

Education is a devolved matter in Scotland. It is therefore for the devolved administration in Scotland to decide and to implement early years education policy in Scotland, including provision of business rates to childcare providers.