Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason the allocation of laptops to St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School in Leeds in response to the covid-19 outbreak was reduced from 19 to four; and if he will make a statement on how the allocation of such laptops relates to the needs of pupils in individual schools.

The Department has invested over £195 million to support remote education and access to online social care, delivering over 220,000 laptops and tablets during the summer term for disadvantaged pupils who would not otherwise have access to a digital device.

The Department is adding to this support by making over 340,000 additional laptops and tablets available to support disadvantaged pupils that might experience disruption to their education. Since September 2020, over 100,000 of these have been delivered to schools.

In the context of significant global demand, the Department has updated its allocation process to more accurately align orders with the number of pupils schools typically have self-isolating, ensuring as many pupils as possible benefit from receiving a device this term. We recognise that levels of self-isolation may be higher in different areas of the country and that face to face education is being prioritised in all eventualities.

This more targeted approach will mean as many schools and disadvantaged pupils as possible benefit from receiving a device in the event that their face to face education is disrupted.

Where schools need additional devices for disadvantaged pupils, they should contact the Department’s service team at covid.technology@education.gov.uk.

These laptops and tablets are an injection of support to help local authorities, academy trusts and schools to provide access to remote education and online social care. Local authorities, academy trusts and schools are responsible for distributing the laptops and tablets and are best placed to know which pupils need access to a device.

The laptops and tablets are owned by the local authority, trust or school, who can lend unused laptops and tablets to pupils who need them most if they experience disruption to face to face education due to the COVID-19 outbreak.