Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department took to estimate private device ownership to inform its allocation of devices to support disadvantaged children in the 2020-21 academic year.

The Department has based allocations on estimates of children in years 3 to 11 without a device. The Department used data on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals, which was effectively equivalent to the estimate of children without private devices, and external estimates of the number of devices that schools already own.

Schools, local authorities and academy trusts can request additional devices if their allocation from the Department does not meet their needs. These requests can be submitted to covid.technology@educationg.gov.uk.