2Qualifying childcare
(1)In this Act “childcare” means any form of care or supervised activity for a child that is not provided in the course of the child’s compulsory education.
(2)Childcare that is provided for a person is “qualifying childcare” for the purposes of this Act if—
(a)it is registered or approved childcare, and
(b)the main reason, or one of the main reasons, for incurring the costs of the childcare is—
(i)to enable the person to work, or
(ii)where the person has a partner, to enable both the person and the person’s partner to work.
(3)Regulations may—
(a)make provision about what is, or is not, to be regarded as registered or approved childcare for the purposes of this section;
(b)define what is meant by “work” for the purposes of this section;
(c)specify cases where the condition in subsection (2)(b) is to be treated as met;
(d)specify cases where that condition does not need to be met.
(4)Regulations made under subsection (3)(a) may, in particular, provide that childcare provided outside the United Kingdom is registered or approved childcare if it is provided by a person approved by an organisation that is accredited by a person or body under an enactment.
(5)Subsection (2) is subject to any direction made under section 50 (which enables HMRC in certain circumstances to direct that childcare provided by a person is not qualifying childcare).