Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish to publish for consultation an amended draft of the statutory guidance on the risks associated with e-cigarettes in the Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum.

On 1 June 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced steps to prevent pupils getting access to e-cigarettes illegally. As part of this, the Department is planning to include a specific reference to the harms of e-cigarettes in the amended Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum.

The Department expects to publish an amended draft of the statutory guidance for consultation later this autumn, with a view to a final version being published in 2024.

The RSHE statutory guidance, which sets out the curriculum topics, already states that in primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use, and drug taking. To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the Department published a suite of teacher training modules, including drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes.

In addition, the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco are taught in compulsory health education. This supplements drug education which is part of the National Curriculum for Science in Key Stages 2 and 3.

Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including what items are banned from school premises. This should be communicated to all pupils, parents and school staff.

Schools have the autonomy to decide which items should be banned from their premises, and these can include e-cigarettes. Items banned by the school can be searched for as outlined in the Department’s Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation.

The Department believes that this will help head teachers to manage e-cigarettes on school premises and to inform pupils about the risks, with a view to reducing the numbers of pupils who are currently using e-cigarettes, or who might be tempted to try them in the future.