Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 May 2020 to Question 46667, on Education: Coronavirus, how much of the £100 million funding that the Government has committed to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access remote education is being allocated to (a) devices and (b) connectivity; and how much of that funding has been spent to date.

The government has committed over £100 million to help schools and young people continue their education at home and access online social care services. We have committed over £14 million on technical support to give schools access to cloud-based education platforms, nearly £6 million to support a new demonstrator school network who are offering peer support on how to use education technology, and over £85 million to provide laptops, tablets and 4G internet devices, including security and e-safety packages and their distribution, and to top up the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund.

The department has also partnered with BT to give 10,000 young people free access to BT Wi-Fi hotspots, who do not have access to good internet by other means.