Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2021 to Question 142923, what the cost to the public purse has been of funding technical support to help schools set up accounts for Google and Microsoft during the January 2021 covid-19 lockdown period to date; to whom that funding been awarded; how much of that funding remains to be allocated for that purpose; and whether that remaining funding will carried over to the next financial year.

From January 2021 to date, £1.8 million has been spent to fund the technical support to set up Google and Microsoft accounts for schools. This funding has been awarded to state-funded primary and secondary schools, further education colleges and virtual schools. Schools are continuing to submit claims throughout March 2021 as their platforms are set-up. The full allocation of funding against the programme budget of £14.2 million will be verified at the end of the financial year. There will be no roll-over of this year’s current budget. A new budget will be set for the 2021-22 financial year.