Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the National Year of Reading having engaged 6,800 schools and early years settings, and 11,000 teachers and early years practitioners, so far.

Reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a wide range of benefits, from increased wellbeing, confidence and empathy to better vocabulary and aptitude for learning. That is why this government, in collaboration with our delivery partner, the National Literacy Trust (NLT), has declared 2026 the National Year of Reading, a UK-wide campaign to inspire a love of reading, combining a universal campaign with a targeted focus on priority groups who are least likely to read for pleasure.

The department is pleased that the campaign has attracted significant attention, momentum and engagement since its launch in January. The department’s ambition is that it will make a lasting change to the reading habits of the nation to address the decline in reading for pleasure and unlock one of the most powerful tools for equity and opportunity, a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. The department is pleased that the NLT’s recent reading report shows children’s reading enjoyment increased in 2026 for the first time in five years.

An independent evaluation will be published in 2027 and will examine how the campaign has influenced reading behaviours, connected with audiences and shaped attitudes towards reading.