Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of young people in the North West of England who are unable to engage in remote learning as a result of a lack of (a) electronic devices and (b) reliable wi-fi access.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. The Department delivered 870,000 of these to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 25 January. Data on the number of devices delivered, including by local authority, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/laptops-and-tablets-data/2021-week-4.

The Government is providing this significant injection of devices on top of an estimated 2.9 million laptops and tablets already owned by schools before the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Our overall commitment of 1.3 million devices is comparable with Ofcom’s UK-wide estimate that between 1.14 million and 1.78 million children in the UK have no home access to a laptop, desktop or tablet. The Department has allocated devices based on recent data on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals.

All schools have been invited to order their full allocation of devices. Schools, academy trusts and local authorities are responsible for distributing the laptops and tablets and are best placed to know which pupils need access to a device.

The Department has also 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.