Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating time within the National Curriculum for reading in book form.

Reading is an essential foundation to a child’s education and the acquisition of knowledge. The National Curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils can read easily, fluently and with good comprehension, and requires pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays to develop a life long love of literature.

The National Curriculum does not prescribe teaching hours for any subject. It is for schools to decide how much time pupils spend reading.