Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what comparisons they have made regarding the purchase and use of books in maintained schools in different parts of the UK.

We want schools to have the resources they need, and through our careful management of the economy we have been able to protect the core schools budget in real terms. That means that in 2016-17 schools have more funding than ever before for children’s education, totalling over £40 billion. We will continue to provide advice and support to help schools use their funding in cost effective ways, and improve the way they buy goods and services, so‎ they get the best possible value for their pupils.

Individual schools are best placed to determine which appropriate teaching resources they fund from within their budgets. We believe, however, that high quality textbooks can make a real difference to teaching. We have worked with publishers with the aim of improving the quality of textbooks available to schools, to better support excellent teaching and teacher professional development. We do not however collect detailed information on the purchase and use of books in different parts of the UK.