Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many providers registered to deliver the 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year olds by 1 September 2017; and what assessment she has made of whether the number of registered providers is sufficient to meet demand.

30 hours free childcare is delivered by providers who are registered with Ofsted. Ofsted publishes a regular series of statistics relating to registration on its website. The latest information on registered providers was published on 14 June - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-and-childcare-statistics.

Since 30 hours has only just been introduced nationally, we do not know how many providers intend to deliver the entitlement at this stage. However, our evaluation of the early rollout of 30 hours in four local authorities indicated that over 80% of providers delivering the free entitlement were willing and able to deliver the extended hours -

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/642007/Evaluation_of_early_rollout_of_30-hours_free_childcare.pdf.