Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the teaching of design and technology in (a) academies and (b) local authority maintained schools.

Design and technology is compulsory in the national curriculum at key stages 1 to 3. The new national curriculum, which came into force from September 2014, is more challenging, with a focus on the process of design and strengthened technical knowledge. GCSEs and A levels in design and technology are being developed, for first teaching from 2017, to be more rigorous and build on the new curriculum. Academies are not required to deliver the national curriculum, however, they must offer a broad and balanced curriculum and publish their curriculum provision and content online.