A series of questions and answers took place towards the end of the Parliament session. The person who set this out was Sally-Ann Hart who is the MP for Hastings and Rye and the response came from Nick Gibb who is a Minister for the Education Department and he is also the MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton. There were also some other questions from other MPs and the system is at here. However here are the questions and answers for Sally-Ann Hart.

Sally-Ann Hart: What steps her Department is taking to improve standards of reading of primary age children.

Nick Gibb: The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study was published in May this year. England had come fourth among 43 countries that tested children of the same age, nine and 10-year-olds. In 2012 we introduced the phonics screening check, testing six-year-olds for their progress in reading and phonics.[This section has been corrected on 20 July 2023, column 15MC — read correction] In that year, 58% of pupils reached the expected standard; by 2019, just before the pandemic, the proportion had risen to 82% following a transformation in the teaching of phonics in nearly all primary schools.

Sally-Ann Hart: Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking the National Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury Publishing for including a number of schools in Hastings and St Leonards in their pioneering new reading programme, which is specifically aimed at persuading more children to read for pleasure, and will he encourage parents and carers to engage in a programme that is a vital part of their children’s development?

Nick Gibb: I recently met Jonathan Douglas of the National Literacy Trust, and I thank the trust for its enormous contribution to raising the profile of reading for pleasure in schools. Its new programme—which, as my hon. Friend said, it launched in partnership with Bloomsbury—involves working with seven Brighton Academies Trust schools throughout Hastings to encourage more children to read for pleasure.