Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will hold discussions with his Welsh counterpart on the potential merits of allocating funding to improve sanitary facilities in schools.

Officials at the Department for Education hold regular discussions with officials in the devolved administrations about the issue of sanitary protection provision in schools; the next discussion is due to take place in April 2018. Officials in the Welsh government have committed to update the Department for Education on all relevant initiatives and we will review evidence on the impact and affordability of their activity.

Our current Sex and Relationships Education guidance encourages schools to make adequate and sensitive arrangements to help girls cope with menstruation. We support schools in addressing the needs of disadvantaged pupils through the provision of the Pupil Premium, equivalent to almost £2.5 billion of additional funding this year alone. Schools have discretion over how they use their funding and can make sanitary products available to pupils if they identify this as a barrier to attainment or attendance.

Through the current round of Tampon Tax funding we will provide £1.5 million for the ‘Let’s Talk. Period.’ project, which will deliver products to disadvantaged young women and girls identified through local partners, including schools, across England.

Our recently published analysis shows no evidence that period poverty has a significant nation-wide impact on school attendance. We want to find out more about this issue, which is why we intend to place questions on these issues in the department’s 2018 surveys for pupils and senior school leaders.