Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to tackle the digital divide between pupils from poorer and wealthier backgrounds.

The Government has committed over £100 million to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers. The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets for vulnerable and disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, receiving support from a social worker or are a care leaver.

We are providing over 50,000 4G wireless routers to disadvantaged children with a social worker in secondary school, care leavers and children in Year 10 who do not have access to a suitable internet connection through other means. We are also working with the country’s major telecommunication companies to make it easier for children in vulnerable and disadvantaged families, who are relying on mobile data, to access online educational resources.