Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve reading standards in schools.

Since the Department introduced the Phonics Screening Check in 2012, the proportion of 6-year-olds reaching the expecting standards has risen from 58% in 2012 to 82% in 2019, just before the pandemic.

The proportion of Year 6 pupils reaching the expected standard in reading in the Key Stage 2 SATs has risen from 66% in 2016 to 73% in 2019, just before the pandemic.

Our ambition is for at least 90% of pupils to reach these standards, through spreading best practice in the English Hubs Programme and through the new Reading Framework.