Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of No Recourse to Public Funds on children's ability to access (a) the internet and (b) a computer to complete school work.

The department is investing over £520 million to support access to remote education and online social care through the Get Help with Technology programme. This programme has already provided over 1.35 million devices to enable disadvantaged children and young people to access education stay in touch with their school and peers and improve their digital skills. On 22 October, the department announced a further rollout of an additional 500,000 devices. Schools and colleges decide how to best use the devices to make sure all pupils, no matter their background, can access education.

In addition, the programme also provided support for over 110,000 families to get online through uplifts in mobile data and 4G wireless routers. This included partnering with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help over 33,000 disadvantaged children get online and delivering over 77,000 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home. The department has announced new funding to support schools and colleges in providing internet access for disadvantaged pupils whose face-to-face education is disrupted during the autumn term and enabled ordering of 4G routers for schools and colleges.

The department supports the role of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in leading digital inclusion across government and welcomes the efforts of organisations such as the Digital Poverty Alliance in improving understanding of digital inclusion impacts, co-ordinating the wide range of existing local and national initiatives and highlighting gaps in support.