Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate the number of children in Solihull constituency that would be currently eligible for 30 hours free childcare.

We will publish figures for individual local authorities in due course.

We can confirm that the additional 15 hours will be available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), with each parent earning a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage. Working will include employed and self-employed parents.

In general families where one parent does not work (or neither parent works) will not be eligible for these additional hours. However, we intend to make provision so that parents in certain circumstances will be regarded as being in work. This includes in the case of couple families where one parent is in receipt of benefits relating to caring responsibilities or a disability, and those on parental leave. More information is set out in the December 2015 Policy Statement, which is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childcare-bill-policy-statement