Relationships, Sex and Health Education: Statutory Guidance

Andrew Bridgen Excerpts

Thursday 16th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank all Members of the House who have discussed this matter respectfully, as well as contributing to and developing our understanding of what is going on in schools. On what is there in schools— I welcome my hon. Friend’s welcoming of this guidance—materials will now have to be shown to parents, no ifs, no buts, and we have made that crystal clear. The materials will need to be in line with the guidance. On enforcement, Ofsted will, as part of what it usually does, go round and look at schools. It will also look at the guidance and what is being taught against it, so there is an enforcement process, too. It has not been easy to put this guidance together, and I thank all the members of the teams and Members of the House who have helped us in that.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Ind)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement today, although I fear it is a bit overdue. Will she concede that this debacle originated at least in part from the World Health Organisation’s “International technical guidance on sexuality education”? It is happening across the world, not just in this country, and that has led to a deeply damaging situation, where unscientific gender ideology has been pushed to our children in our schools. Will she explain to the House how many children she believes have been exposed to this abuse? What steps will she take to correct the mistakes that have already been made? What assurance is there for parents that nothing like this can ever happen again and that it is being stopped today?

[Gillian Keegan]

I take responsibility for England, and I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s welcoming of the guidance. I think we have shown leadership. We issued gender questioning guidance in December last year. We have updated the relationships, sex and health education guidance. Within the United Kingdom, there have been different views on this, and I reiterate my offer to Wales and Scotland, if they want to work with us, because the evidence has been emerging on this. I can only show leadership in the areas for which I am responsible.