To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many nurseries he estimates will open in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

The Department has not made an estimate of the number of nurseries that will open.

The Government is, however, taking steps to remove the barriers to new providers entering the early education and child care market, and to existing nurseries expanding. We are consulting on removing planning barriers to converting buildings into nurseries, we are making it automatic for good nurseries to offer government-funded early education places and we are making it easier for schools to open nurseries.

We also want to see a growth in the number of child minders, which is why we are legislating to enable the creation of child minder agencies which will reduce their paperwork and free them to care for children.