The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) published a report in November 2023 named ‘Price inflation and competition in food and grocery manufacturing and supply’, which included an assessment on infant formula. It found that between March 2021 and April 2023, the price of infant formula had grown beyond the increased input costs to manufacturers. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/price-inflation-and-competition-in-food-and-grocery-manufacturing-and-supply

The CMA has committed to publishing a further report examining infant formula in more detail later this year, and Departmental officials continue to engage with the CMA.

The Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey 2022 provides information on childcare fees, overall and by region, and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-provider-survey. The survey suggests that the mean hourly fees were highest in London, followed by the South East and East of England. They were lowest in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East.

The Providers’ finances: Evidence from the Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers 2021 report contains information on provider finances, and can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1071812/Frontier_-_SCEYP_2021_Finance_Report.pdf. This report contains information on how much of a percentage providers spend on ‘other’ costs. The ‘other’ category includes spend on energy costs as well as other factors. The report does not break the ‘other’ category down further into provider spend on only energy costs or only inflationary costs.

The department recognises the impact that rising energy prices can have on businesses, the voluntary sector and public sector organisations of all sizes, including all early years settings. The energy regulator Ofgem and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy are in regular contact with business groups and suppliers to understand the challenges they face and to explore ways to protect consumers and businesses.

In September 2022, the government announced unprecedented support to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Discount Scheme, the successor to the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, are supporting millions of households and businesses, including Early Years settings, with rising energy costs until 31 March 2024.

In 2022-23 the Metropolitan Police Service will receive up to £3.24bn of funding. This is an increase of up to £169m when compared to 2021-22. In addition, the MPS receives funding for a number of other functions including as the lead for counter-terrorism, around £47m of funding relating to crime reduction programmes, and specific funding through the Police Special Grant.

The discretionary National and International Capital City (NICC) Grant, which is included in these figures totals £185.3m, unchanged from 2021-22.

Funding since 2010 cannot be directly compared as elements have changed or been amalgamated over time.

The Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards, issued by the department under the Care Standards Act 2000 (CSA), set out the expectations that are placed on foster parents and their agencies. The department is clear that no one should suffer financially because of their fostering role and we expect all foster parents to receive at least the national minimum allowance (NMA), plus any agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them.

The NMA is uprated annually, with the next update to come into effect in April 2023.

Foster carers also receive Qualifying Care Relief that is made up of two parts, tax exemption on the first £10,000 shared equally among any foster carers in the same household and tax relief for every week a child is in their care.

No specific assessment has been made.

The department recognises and continues to assess the impact rising energy prices and inflation are having on nurseries, childminders and other childcare providers.

On Thursday 8 September, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced measures to tackle the root cause of the issues in the UK energy market including the introduction of an Energy Price Guarantee’ to limit the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas and electricity.

To support childminders operating from their own home who are on domestic energy tariffs, typical UK households will pay no more than £2,500 a year on their gas and electricity bill for the next two years from Saturday 1 October. This will save the average household £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This will be in addition to the announced £400 energy bills discount for all households and together they will bring costs close to where the energy price cap stands today.

There will be a new six-month scheme for businesses and all non-domestic energy users, including charities and public sector organisations. Providers in all educational sectors will therefore be eligible, including providers of childcare on non-domestic premises like nurseries.

After this initial six-month scheme for non-domestic customers, the government will provide ongoing, focused support for vulnerable sectors. There will be a review in three months’ time to consider where this should be targeted to make sure those most in need get support.

We will continue to work closely with the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy to monitor the impacts on the early years and childcare sector. We will share further detail with the sector in due course.

The department recognises and continues to assess the impact rising energy prices and inflation are having on nurseries, childminders and other childcare providers.

On Thursday 8 September, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced measures to tackle the root cause of the issues in the UK energy market including the introduction of an Energy Price Guarantee’ to limit the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas and electricity.

To support childminders operating from their own home who are on domestic energy tariffs, typical UK households will pay no more than £2,500 a year on their gas and electricity bill for the next two years from Saturday 1 October. This will save the average household £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This will be in addition to the announced £400 energy bills discount for all households and together they will bring costs close to where the energy price cap stands today.

There will be a new six-month scheme for businesses and all non-domestic energy users, including charities and public sector organisations. Providers in all educational sectors will therefore be eligible, including providers of childcare on non-domestic premises like nurseries.

After this initial six-month scheme for non-domestic customers, the government will provide ongoing, focused support for vulnerable sectors. There will be a review in three months’ time to consider where this should be targeted to make sure those most in need get support.

We will continue to work closely with the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy to monitor the impacts on the early years and childcare sector. We will share further detail with the sector in due course.

The Childcare Act 2006 places a duty on all local authorities to secure sufficient childcare, so far as is reasonably practicable, for working parents in their area for children aged 0-14, or up to 18 for disabled children. As the body responsible for the sufficiency of childcare provision locally, local authorities will have an interest in knowing about the current and future demand and supply of wraparound and holiday childcare, including the level of fees for wraparound and holiday childcare and the impact of inflation on those fees, and how that affects parents’ ability to access wraparound childcare.

The department does not hold a central register of wraparound providers from which an accurate assessment of average costs, either nationally or regionally, for wraparound childcare for school aged children can be made, either during term time or holiday periods. However, since the onset of COVID-19, department officials have regularly met with three of the largest wraparound childcare providers in England, to understand the challenges the sector faces, and how these challenges affect parents and children using, or seeking to use, wrapround childcare.

This engagement has included identifying changes to fees during COVID-19 restrictions and following the lifting of the restrictions for both term-time and holiday provision, and the perceived impact that these changes have had on parents using wraparound childcare. This work, alongside survey-based engagement with a broader range of smaller providers from across the county and ongoing work with local authorities, has helped to inform the department’s response to sufficiency concerns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and will inform future policy development to support local authorities to secure affordable and accessible wraparound childcare places for all those who need them.

While the department does not currently hold statistical data on wraparound childcare costs, we will conduct a survey of approximately 6,000 parents of 0-14 year olds in the coming year to better understand their childcare needs. This will include establishing indicative costs paid by parents for a range of childcare providers for children up to the age of 14, on an annual basis.

Since the announcement at the Spending Review last year, we have made it clear in public communications, including the Written Ministerial Statement of 25 November 2021, that the investments in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 are all individually in comparison to the current year (2021-22).

This investment reflects anticipated cost pressures such as inflation and changes in the number of children as forecast at the time of the Spending Review.

For 2022-23 we will increase the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the two-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the three and four-year-old entitlement.

The department bases its population estimates on the latest available data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ONS data projects the 0-4 year old population will decrease by around 5% from mid-2022 to mid-2025. This is key information that needs to be taken into consideration in order to provide an accurate picture of what the funding settlement means.

We expect to announce the early years funding rates for local authorities for 2023-24 in autumn 2022 (and the following autumn for 2024-25), ahead of local authorities starting their business planning rounds for the respective financial years.

The Government recognise that inflation is rising, and are closely monitoring the situation. The Bank of England is responsible for keeping inflation at its 2% target. As my colleagues mentioned earlier, we are working with international partners to tackle global supply chain

disruption, and are taking targeted action worth more than £10 billion over the next five years to help people with the cost of living.

The Government very much recognise the challenge that people are facing, which is why we have introduced a range of interventions, including: the warm home discount; the household support fund, giving £500 million to local authorities to distribute; changes to the taper rate; and an increase in the national living wage. That range of interventions will help with the cost of living challenges, and will help many of the hon. Lady’s constituents.