Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are taking to ensure that the number of textbooks and library books available in maintained schools is not reduced, and that that number is not reduced in comparison to the number of books available in private schools.

We want all 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. School funding is now at its highest level on record at more than £40bn in 2016-17 - and that is set to rise, as pupil numbers rise over the next two years, to £42 billion by 2019-20.

We agree that high quality textbooks are important in delivering high quality education. Schools are best placed to determine appropriate teaching resources which they fund from within their budgets. We do not collect detailed information on the purchase of books in schools.

We believe that school libraries play a key role in encouraging young people to read for pleasure. We believe that it should be for schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils.