Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January to Question 137170 on Children: Computers, what assessment he has made of (a) the number of children remote learning during the covid-19 lockdown, (b) how many devices those children require, and (c) how much funding his Department will allocate to provide those devices.

All primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in England are now expected to provide remote education for the majority of their pupils and students. To support this, the Government is investing over £400 million, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over 800,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 17 January. Schools already owned around 2 million laptops and 1 million tablets before the COVID-19 outbreak, and they have been invited to order more devices to help meet demand.

Delivery of devices is continuing over the course of this term. The Get Help with Technology scheme will email schools with information on the number of additional devices allocated to them, and when they will be able to order.

We have estimated the number of laptops and tablets needed by disadvantaged children in Years 3 to 11 using data on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals data and external estimates of the number of devices that schools already own. Schools, local authorities and academy trusts are able to request additional devices if their original allocation does not meet their needs.