Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many devices provided to schools via the Get help with technology programme have been returned to the manufacturer for repair.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people.

As of Monday 15 February, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities (LA) and further education colleges.

The Department has signed contracts with Computacenter and XMA to supply a variety of device types according to the needs of schools and end-users. Unit costs of specific devices distributed by the programme are not published as these are commercially sensitive.

Every laptop and tablet that the Department provides meets a set of minimum specifications designed to enable children to learn remotely. Devices were issued with a 1-year warranty from the manufacturer. All devices are still within warranty until at least June 2021.

The laptops and tablets are the property of the school, LA or academy trust, and they should assume responsibility for their ongoing maintenance and support as part of this. If a device develops a fault that is not caused by a user, a free replacement can be requested via our enhanced support service. Schools, academy trusts and LAs can raise requests for replacement devices on the Computacenter Support Portal. This service is designed to minimise the time the user is without a working device. Since June 2020, the Department has completed 2425 replacements.