Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of incorporating water safety and drowning prevention into the national curriculum.

The government fully supports the National Water Safety Forum’s National Drowning Prevention Strategy.

We have made sure that swimming and water safety is compulsory in the national curriculum for PE at primary levels (key stages 1 and 2). This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-physical-education-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-physical-education-programmes-of-study#swimming-and-water-safety.

The curriculum sets out the expectation that all pupils should be taught to:

- swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres:

- use a range of strokes effectively;

- perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

The government tasked an independent group of experts from across the swimming sector to submit a report setting out recommendations for improving curriculum swimming as part of the 'Sporting Future' strategy. We have established an implementation group and are currently reviewing the recommendations in the report.