Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of levels of nursery care costs on economic productivity and output.

The government recognises the importance of families being able to access affordable childcare, including nursery care, in allowing parents to work.

The government offers a range of support for parents to help with childcare costs, including access to early education through the Department for Education’s free hours entitlements, and financial support with childcare through Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) and Universal Credit (UC) childcare offers.

In addition to this support, the government remains committed to driving down childcare costs for providers and parents. In July, it announced a series of measures to achieve this including consulting on increasing the number of children that can be looked after by each staff member in early years settings; taking action to grow the childminder market; reforming the way early years funding is distributed in England; and driving a renewed campaign to increase take-up of UC Childcare and TFC.