PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Remote Education: Mobile Broadband (23 February 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the remote education support scheme being offered by mobile phone networks in partnership with his Department, how many pupils are receiving support offered by (a) EE, (b) O2, (c) Sky Mobile, (d) SMARTY, (e) Tesco Mobile, (f) Three, (g) Virgin Mobile and (f) Vodafone as of 22 February 2021.

Asked by:
Dame Siobhain McDonagh (Labour)

As of Monday 15 February 2021, over one million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, trusts, local authorities and further education providers. More information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/laptops-and-tablets-data/2021-week-7.

We publish this data every week during term time and the next publication will be Tuesday 2 March 2021.

We have partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help disadvantaged children get online. We will provide official statistics on the number of requests received for uplifts in mobile data in early March 2021. We will not be able to provide a breakdown of the numbers of requests received for each provider as this information is commercially sensitive for providers.

We are grateful to EE, Lycamobile, O2, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Mobile, BT Mobile, Vodafone, iD Mobile and giffgaff for supporting the mobile data offer. We are currently engaged with additional mobile network operators to provide further support through this offer.

Additionally, we are grateful to BT and EE, who have made access to BBC Bitesize resources free from the end of January 2021.

Answered by:
Nick Gibb (Conservative)
1 March 2021