Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Government's Spending Review 2021, Priority outcomes and metrics, what the baseline year is that her Department uses to determine whether it has achieved the goal of increasing the number of additional girls reading by age 10 or the end of primary school, year-on-year change, in priority countries; and how many girls were reading by age 10 or the end of primary school in that baseline year.

As part of the UK's G7 Presidency this year, G7 partners agreed to working with developing countries to get 20 million more girls reading by age ten or the end of primary school, by 2026. This is a global goal, and a milestone towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 by 2030. This learning data is for low and lower-middle income countries. The data is published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and 2019 is the starting year. A baseline number is currently being finalised.