Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration has been given to making it compulsory to have EpiPens in all schools.

In 2014, the government introduced a new duty on schools to support pupils with all medical conditions and published the ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ statutory guidance for schools and others. This guidance does not specify which medical conditions should be supported in schools. Instead, the guidance focuses on how to meet the needs of each individual child and how their medical condition impacts on school life.

Schools also have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments to their practices, procedures and policies to ensure that they are not putting those with certain long-term health problems at a substantial disadvantage.

Under the Medical and Healthcare Regulatory Agency Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017, all schools are able to buy adrenaline auto-injector (AAI) devices without a prescription, for emergency use in children who are at risk of anaphylaxis, but their own device is not available or not working. The Department for Health and Social care published guidance on using an emergency AAI in schools which can be found in the attached document.