Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when all pupils will have access to the IT and broadband required to access education remotely if not in school during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services.

As of Monday 25 January, we have delivered over 870,000 laptops and tablets to schools, trusts and local authorities. Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, trusts or local authorities who can lend these to children and young people who need them most during the current COVID-19 restrictions.

We have partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online as well as delivering 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home.

We are grateful to EE, O2, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, and Vodafone. We continue to invite a range of mobile network providers to support the offer.

A number of mobile network providers are also progressing the zero-rating of educational resources, such as Oak Academy and BBC Bitesize.