Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many IT devices have been given to disadvantaged children to enable them to attend school remotely in (a) North West Durham constituency, (b) County Durham and (c) England.

The Government is investing over £300 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing over one million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over 560,000 laptops and tablets that have already been delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities in 2020.

As of 18 December 2020, 1,808 devices have been delivered directly to Durham Local Authority. Devices have also been delivered to academy trusts that have schools located in Durham Local Authority, which are not included in this figure. This is because it is for academy trusts, which may have schools in several Local Authorities, to determine how best to distribute the devices they have received. It is not possible to provide figures on the number of devices received specifically by schools in the North West Durham constituency, because schools in a specific constituency will have received devices from their Local Authority or, if they are an academy, from the trust of which they are part.

More information on the number of devices delivered as of the 18 December can be viewed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/946954/Devices_and_4G_wireless_routers_data_as_of_December.pdf.