Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the large nursery chains offer funded places for two year olds as part of the Government's free 15 hours of early education for disadvantaged two year olds; and how many such places are offered in England.

The Government does not collect this data. Data on Government funded early education, including early learning for two year olds is available online at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/provision-for-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2014

The Government encourages all high-quality early education providers to offer places for disadvantaged two year olds. The data published above shows that in January 2014 over 14,000 providers were delivering places for early learning for two year olds. This is very significant progress in advance of the 40% entitlement. The Government expects many more providers, including those in the large nursery chains, to offer places now the 40% entitlement has commenced.