Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department took to ensure that (a) laptops and (b) tablets provided to children for home learning during the covid-19 outbreak were not infected with malware from international servers.

The Government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including making 1.3 million laptops and tablets available for disadvantaged children and young people.

To date, over 1.29 million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, academy trusts, local authorities and further education colleges. We have also provided support for over 100,000 families to get online through uplifts in mobile data and 4G wireless routers.

Schools are responsible for ensuring their IT infrastructure is secure. This includes checking the security of any laptops and tablets accessing the school’s network.

Devices available through the Get Help with Technology programme include Microsoft Windows devices, Chromebooks and Apple iPads. Microsoft Windows devices come with Windows Defender Antivirus. Chromebooks come with Chrome OS which manages encryption, anti-malware, and anti-virus. Apple iPads are built on the Apple iOS which is designed to be secure in a way which makes iOS targeted Malware very rare and specific protection against this unnecessary.