Announcing the inquiry, the committee said it plans to examine the high quality, accessible, flexible and affordable childcare can play in supporting labour productivity.

It will scrutinise the processes around how childcare schemes are delivered and the quality of childcare interfaces – such as the childcare service website, which is operated by HMRC, and their previous failures.

Among the questions the inquiry is set to cover are whether the IT failures on the childcare service website affected the administration of tax-free childcare accounts and/ or impacted those trying to open a tax-free childcare account. MPs will also look at where the IT difficulties also affected the administration of applications for the 30 hour free childcare scheme.

The childcare service enables parents to apply for both tax-free childcare and 30 hours free childcare through a single, digital application. This avoids the need for parents to provide the same information twice and means that many parents receive an eligibility result in real time.

However, following an appearance in front of the committee in August 2017, HMRC CEO Jon Thompson was forced to admit that 5% of users regularly encountered ‘technical difficulties’ screens, while the website had been down for 160 hours, including for planned updates and maintenance, in the four months since April when the service was launched. Of more than 1,900 complaints received about the service, over 90% related to technical issues.

As a result of the IT difficulties, HMRC issued 1,138 codes manually and made 373 payments to childcare providers on behalf of parents. A total of £45,687 was been paid as compensation in lieu of the government top-up parents would have received if they had been able to access their accounts and as redress.

Nicky Morgan, chair of the Treasury committee, said: ‘There had been reports of problems with the HMRC-run childcare service website, which has been a cause for concern. We’ll examine the impact of these failures on the take-up of government initiatives that aim to make childcare affordable.’

The inquiry will also consider the overall package of government initiatives that aim to make childcare affordable, how the individual initiatives interact with each other and their effectiveness, and whether they have delivered an adequate provision of affordable childcare that facilitates parental employment.

The first evidence session will be on 31 January with Elizabeth Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, with responsibility for childcare policy.

Details of the Treasury committee childcare inquiry are here.

Report by Pat Sweet