Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his oral contribution of 9 June 2020, Official Report, column 180, what the role of Computacentre is in distributing laptops to school pupils; on what basis that company was selected for that service; how much that company is being paid for that programme; and what checks his Department has conducted on that company's payment of tax in the UK.

The Department has ordered over 200,000 laptops and tablets. This order was placed on 19 April.

The Department is providing these devices in the shortest possible timeframe. Over 100,000 devices have been delivered to local authorities and academy trusts and thousands of devices continue to be delivered each day. Laptops and tablets will continue to be delivered throughout June.

Computacenter is a supplier on a government framework. Computacenter has been contracted to provide laptops and tablets in order to meet the requirement for disadvantaged and vulnerable children across England to receive devices to support remote education and access to social care services during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Further details of the contract are publicly available: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/e9047eeb-be82-4506-8a97-448ff0d73cfe.

As with all Government contracts, due diligence checks have been undertaken to assess the suitability of the supplier.