The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Chris Heaton-Harris)
Section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act 2019 (“the NIEF Act”) places me under a legal duty to ensure that the recommendations in paragraphs 85 and 86 of the 2018 report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (“the CEDAW report”) are implemented in full.
I have today laid regulations in Parliament to implement the CEDAW recommendation to
“make age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion in Northern Ireland, and monitor its implementation”.
The regulations will mirror the approach taken in England with regard to education about the prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion. This is provided for in regulation 2(2).
It has always been my preference that, as a devolved matter, the Department of Education in Northern Ireland updates the curriculum. However, nearly four years have passed since the NIEF Act, and adolescents in Northern Ireland are still not receiving comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Today, I am therefore laying regulations that:
Amend the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, and the Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 for adolescents, to make age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion, a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents.
Place a duty on the Department of Education to issue guidance, by 1 January 2024, on the content and delivery of the education required to be provided.
Place a duty on the board of governors and principal of every grant-aided school to have regard to this guidance.
Place a duty on the Department of Education to publish a report by 1 September 2026 on the implementation of education on sexual and reproductive health and rights in grant-aided schools, and lay the report before the Assembly.
I recognise the sensitivity of this topic and that some parents may wish to teach their child about sex education themselves, or make alternative arrangements for sex education to be provided in line with their religious or other beliefs. In recognition of this, the regulations also place a duty on the Department of Education to introduce a mechanism to ensure that a pupil may be withdrawn from education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, or elements of that education, at the request of a parent. This follows the approach taken in England and Scotland.
Consultation with parents on relationship and sexuality education is already common practice in Northern Ireland and we expect the Department of Education to ensure schools afford parents the opportunity to review relevant materials.
I wish to be clear that educating adolescents on issues such as contraception, and access to abortion in Northern Ireland, should be done in a factual way that does not advocate, or oppose, a particular view on the moral and ethical considerations of abortion or contraception.
While the changes to the curriculum will come into effect from 1 July 2023, there will be a period of implementation and a need for meaningful engagement with teachers, parents and young people. To allow for this, the regulations place a duty on the Department of Education to issue guidance on the content and delivery of the required education by 1 January 2024.
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