Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many laptops, iPads and 4G routers were provided to children in Wansbeck constituency (a) in total and (b) by school.

The Government has invested over £160 million to support remote education and access to online social care.

As part of this, the Department for Education has delivered over 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 50,000 4G wireless routers, during the summer term, for disadvantaged children in Year 10, children receiving support from a social worker and care leavers. A breakdown of how many devices were delivered to each local authority or academy trust, including in Wansbeck, which is covered by Northumberland County Council, can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/912888/Devices_and_4G_wireless_routers_progress_data_as_of_27_August_2020.pdf.

The laptops and tablets delivered in the summer term were an injection of support to help local authorities and academy trusts to provide access to education and social care during the COVID-19 restriction period. Local authorities and academy trusts were responsible for distributing the devices. The Department does not hold data on which schools the devices were distributed to.

The Department is now supplementing this support by making available 250,000 additional laptops and tablets in the event that face-to-face schooling is disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and children become reliant on remote education.