Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the recent findings from the World Health Organization that revealed Great Britain has the highest rate of child alcohol use worldwide.

​​Schools are already required to teach content on alcohol use as part of the statutory guidance for Health Education.

Since September 2020, it has been compulsory for schools to teach Relationships Education for primary school aged pupils, Relationships and Sex Education for secondary school aged pupils and Health Education for all pupils in state-funded schools. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.

To support implementation, the department published a teacher training module on drugs, alcohol and tobacco as part of a wider suite of teacher training materials. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-training-drugs-alcohol-and-tobacco.

The department is currently reviewing the content of the ‘Relationships and sex education and health education’ statutory guidance and expects to consult on an amended draft very shortly so that the new guidance will be available as soon as possible.