Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people and what proportion of eligible families in each local authority area registered for the 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year olds by 1 September 2017.

The national rollout of 30 hours free childcare marks the delivery of a manifesto commitment that will help hundreds of thousands of hard working families. The childcare service online application has been working well for the vast majority of parents and over 216,384 valid 30 hours codes have been generated by successful applications, reaching our target for 1st September. As of 6th September, 152,829 eligibility codes for 30 hours free childcare have been validated. These are eligibility codes that were issued by 31st August and validated by 5th September for children aged three by 31st August 2017.

It is the responsibility of local authorities to assess supply and demand of free entitlement places at a local level.