Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of compulsory knife crime education and prevention in the Personal, Social, Health and Economic or Citizenship curriculum of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools; and if he will make a statement.

We know how important it is that young people understand the dangers of knife crime. Schools can currently choose to include lessons on weapons awareness and gangs as part of their school curriculum.

Through the Children and Social Work Act 2017, the Government is making the subjects of Relationships Education compulsory in primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in secondary schools. These subjects will help young people understand safe, respectful and positive relationships and appropriate ways of resolving conflict. The Act also provides a power for the Secretary of State to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education (or elements therein) mandatory in all schools.

The Department recently conducted a wide-ranging engagement process, including a public call for evidence, on the scope of the subjects, and on the status of PSHE. Departmental officials are assessing the evidence gathered during the engagement process, to support decisions on subject content and on the status of PSHE. The Department plans to publish the results of the engagement process shortly, alongside a consultation on draft regulations and accompanying statutory guidance, before laying the regulations in the House for debate.