Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many laptops have been delivered to vulnerable children for online learning during the covid-19 outbreak; and whether those laptops have (a) preloaded and (b) funded licence agreements for Microsoft Office.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education and social care services, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G routers.

The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets, and allocated devices based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have access to a device. The Department is working to provide these devices in the shortest possible timeframe; deliveries to schools and Local Authorities will start this month and continue in June.

Microsoft Windows laptops and tablets will come with Windows 10 installed. Schools can also apply for government-funded support to access one of two free-to-use digital education platforms: G Suite for Education or Office 365 Education.