Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote the National Year of Reading 2026 in educational settings.

This government has committed to strong foundations in reading and writing for all children, to help every child achieve and thrive at school.

We know that reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a range of benefits, including strong links with attainment, wellbeing, empathy, confidence, and aptitude for learning, with reading holding the key to accessing the rest of the curriculum. However, recent evidence shows that only one in three children report enjoying reading in their free time with just one in five reading daily. This is even lower for certain groups, for example, in 2025, just 25.7% of boys aged 8-18 said they enjoy reading, compared to 39.1% of girls.

The National Year of Reading 2026 is a UK wide campaign to address the decline in reading for pleasure. It includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year. It encourages people of all ages to “Go All In” and explore reading as a way to deepen their interests and passions.

As part of the National Year of Reading, we are investing an additional £5 million for secondary schools to purchase books and other reading material to promote reading enjoyment amongst their pupils. This funding will be distributed during 2026, and further details will be communicated to schools in due course.

In addition to this, we have committed over £10 million, via the Dormant Assets Strategy, to ensure every primary school in England has a library by the end of this parliament.

These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that every child has access to high-quality reading opportunities, to inspire a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. We also look forward to engaging with the Education Select Committee’s inquiry into Reading for Pleasure and reviewing its findings.