Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to evaluate the pilot schemes on increasing free childcare entitlement to 30 hours per week.

We are currently commissioning the evaluation of early implementation of 30 hours free childcare. An invitation to tender was published in May 2016 with a view to awarding the contract to a successful bidder by the end of June 2016.

The evaluation will focus on generating learning that can be used by Early Implementers and all local councils ahead of national implementation in September 2017.