Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are currently eligible for 15 hours of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year olds; and what proportion of eligible children are in receipt of that childcare.

In January 2018, 154,960 two year olds benefitted from funded early education, representing 72% of the eligible population. Local authority breakdowns are available in Tables 1A and 8LA of the ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age, January 2018’ national statistics release, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/education-provision-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2018.

The 2019 national statistics release, covering the position in January 2019, will be published in June 2019.