Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of people who will benefit from the Multiply scheme in Scotland.

All local areas in the United Kingdom will receive funding to deliver bespoke adult numeracy programmes from April 2022. Multiply will help people improve their basic numeracy skills through free digital training, flexible courses and tutoring. It will be a new UK-wide offer launching in spring 2022, which will help people build their confidence, remove barriers to learning, and tailor delivery to meet learner and employer needs.

We estimate that up to 500,000 learners across the UK could gain a recognised qualification and/or improve their numeracy skills through Multiply.