Childcare Bill [Lords]

I am sorry; I remain genuinely confused. I hear the Secretary of State talking about a fairer fun...

I suggest that the hon. Lady look at the review, which is being published as I speak. The figure ...

rose—

Let me just answer the hon. Lady’s other question. She asked about the funding formula review. Th...

As I understand it, the figure of £9.50 that I quoted was provided by the Daycare Trust. The Secr...

The Bill is going to enter Committee and I am sure that there will be debates on this, but the ev...

The subject of councils siphoning off a bit of the money has been mentioned. That happens in Wilt...

Part of the reason for having the funding formula review, which is part of the wider review of sc...

Is this new money going to be ring-fenced? I am a bit uncertain about that. I had assumed that it...

The money for childcare providers is paid to local authorities as part of something called the de...

I welcome the news about before and after-school clubs. Will the Secretary of State guarantee tha...

The hon. Lady sets out precisely the problem we are trying to solve. She and other parents at her...

I am delighted to see that the Government are trying to implement more Labour policy. The Secreta...

First, the hon. Gentleman should be pleased the Conservative party is on the side of working peop...

rose—

I will give way to the hon. Lady, for the last time.

I have a number of questions, but I will just stick to the money. When Labour was promising 25 ho...

Yet again, I do not agree with the hon. Lady’s figures. The point is that she is missing the addi...

I rise to support the Second Reading of this Bill. Labour has a proud record on childcare, and on...

The hon. Lady mentioned cuts to child tax credits in the last Parliament. Does she accept that it...

Most families under the Government’s plans for tax-free childcare will be eligible for support wi...

I am a little confused. There has been a review, which the hon. Lady will not yet have had an opp...

With respect, neither has the hon. Lady seen the review, and she misunderstands the nature of the...

The cost of childcare review that was undertaken by the Department over a period of six months ha...

Of course I will look at it. Perhaps next time we are having a Second Reading debate where fundin...

Reference has been made to the cost of childcare review, and we have been told that 6,000 people ...

It is online.

Yes, but it is taking a certain amount of time to print it off. Therefore, we have not been able ...

I do of course agree with my hon. Friend, who makes a very good point. This is all regardless of ...

indicated dissent.

I would be happy if the hon. Gentleman had a childcare strategy; this is a very complex market th...

Childcare is not a political football, and I really hope that the hon. Member for Manchester Cent...

From my study of the Blue Book, it seems that childcare will not be available to parents unless t...

I thank the hon. Lady for bringing that up. I am not about to have a Committee debate on the Floo...

I speak as a former teacher with 20 years’ experience in education, so I will speak from a person...

I rise to give some reasons why I welcome the Bill. First, it goes to the heart of what I am sure...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Norwich North (Chloe Smith).

As usual, the d...

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman does not realise that one of the routes to higher education in Scotlan...

I do know that fact, but if I were an SNP representative I would certainly not defend its role in...

On our staff to child ratios, I can confirm to the House, and we have said so in the other place,...

I am delighted that this is probably the third or fourth U-turn of the day—it is hard to keep up—...

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that we are doubling the entitlement, but not necessarily the demand?...

I am arguing not about reduction in quality, but for an improvement in it. I understand the point...

Does that that suggest that there is a division?

No! We are all united in this House on the need for measures to help working families and raise m...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt). He says th...

The Under-Secretary of State for Education, Lord Nash, stated in the other place that this Govern...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I want to make some progress, if the hon. Lady does not mind.

To truly focus unashamedly on...

This legislation is extremely welcome. One of the greatest barriers to re-entry into the workplac...

Surely the hon. Lady would agree that the very children she is talking about, who really need hel...

The Bill will enable two, three and four-year-olds to have the schooling they need. I welcome the...

Providing more free childcare for working parents was supposed to be an easy win for the Governme...

I also take this very seriously. The enrolment rates for the first 15 hours are 96% for four-year...

Let me give the hon. Gentleman my view, which, again, is based on experience from my constituency...

As the Secretary of State said in her opening speech, as part of announcing this rate we will be ...

Again, that sounds great, but it does not make any sense. Does it mean that my local authority wi...

The hon. Lady is throwing out lots of numbers, but nobody has mentioned the £4.35 she has just th...

I would be interested to know whether the Minister regrets producing the document entitled “Cost ...

My hon. Friend is making some excellent points and scrutinising the Minister extremely well. She ...

I think that that is right, and there was a hint of that, I think, from the hon. and learned Memb...

My hon. Friend is making a very—

Mr Deputy Speaker, this is a novel—

Order. I am sorry. You are winding up the debate, so you will have a chance to come back to the h...

My hon. Friend is pointing out that, according to the Chancellor, to qualify for this free

...

The point is—[Interruption.] I am just pointing out that the Blue Book refers to

“a minimum...

The eligibility will be checked by HMRC, and it will be based on the actual income earned, so at ...

Is the Minister therefore saying that people do not need to be earning a minimum weekly income at...

The answer to the hon. Lady’s question is simple: a lone parent would have to earn £107 a week to...

Therefore, someone who works 16 hours on the national minimum wage will not get 30 hours of child...

The first 15 hours of childcare is a universal offer that everyone receives. The income testing a...

I am grateful to the Minister for making that clearer. Over the next few days I am sure that many...

indicated dissent.

I assure the hon. Gentleman that it was produced halfway through. We sent people to the Library t...

This has been a really good debate, with informative contributions from Members on both sides of ...

As I said very clearly, this is an income check. Irrespective of the number of hours someone work...

That means that those on low pay and short hours—mainly women—will be affected.

We have hea...

Today is an exciting day for the childcare sector. At a time of austerity when we still have to w...

Aside from the hourly rate, the bigger question that the Minister has been asked today is about t...

indicated dissent.

Well, the Minister can work out the maths himself. I can help him if he likes.

That point is completely irrelevant. The first 15 hours will be a universal offer. Every three an...

I actually made the costings calculation myself at the last election. The discrepancy in the figu...

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that fewer families will access the additional hours, particula...

Of course, we are talking about ambitious targets and the Minister is outlining his Government’s ...

I am glad to say that in England we have ambitious targets, but also targets on which we are deli...