§ Mr. Jim MurphyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when the Computers Within Reach programme will be introduced throughout the United Kingdom. [155249]
§ Mr. WillsComputers Within Reach is a Capital Modernisation Fund (CMF) scheme. Such schemes are intended to provide funding for piloting new policy approaches and are not designed to fund full national schemes. It was therefore never intended that the existing CMF funds allocated, £15 million, would be rolled out as a national scheme. We are currently in phase 1 of the scheme working in certain areas of England. The scheme is an England-only rather than a UK pilot.
We will be evaluating the impact of this, and other pilot CMF schemes such as "Wired. Up Communities", alongside our existing policies on "digital divide" issues before we make decisions on our next steps.