Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to include financial education in the new GCSE Citizenship curriculum.

Proposed content for the new Citizenship Studies GCSE was published for consultation on 25 September and the consultation closed on 20 November. The proposals include the requirement that GCSE specifications should enable students to “know and understand how taxes are raised and spent by governments, and how national economic and financial policies and decisions relate to individuals”.

The Department for Education is currently considering the consultation responses received, and final decisions on the detailed content of the new GCSE will be taken and published in the new year.

Citizenship education is, of course, part of the national curriculum. The new programmes of study, from September 2014, require schools to prepare pupils to manage their money well and make sound financial decisions.