Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proposal to change the status of all secondary schools in England to become academies would mean that those schools which are now maintained schools will no longer have an obligation to deliver sex and relationship education.

The Government is clear that all schools should make provision for high-quality sex and relationship education, which is a vital part of preparing young people for life in modern Britain.

Academies, like maintained schools, must teach a broad and balanced curriculum and in respect of sex and relationship education, they must - under the terms of their funding agreement - have regard to the Secretary of State’s statutory Sex and Relationship Education guidance published in 2000.

The issue of statutory personal, social, health and economic education and sex and relationship education was raised during the Education Select Committee session in September. The Secretary of State agreed that we need to look again at how schools deliver high-quality personal, social, health and economic education including sex and relationship education. The Government is considering all the options and will come to a view in due course.