Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to issue guidance to schools on handling allegations of misgendering of pupils.

​The Department has published guidance to help schools understand how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act. This includes a duty on schools not to discriminate unlawfully due to the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.

As part of the Government’s LGBT Action Plan, the Department has committed to ensuring that schools have access to the guidance they need to support LGBT pupils. This includes a commitment to updating the Equality Act guidance. Also, in the LGBT Action Plan is a commitment that Government Equalities Office will work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish comprehensive guidance for schools on how to support transgender pupils.