Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to adopt the Council of Europe's recommendation to "include the history of Roma and Travellers in school curricula and teaching materials", published in their list of recommendations on 1 July 2020; and what plans they have to make the teaching mandatory and educate those unaware of the genocide of the Roma population in the Holocaust.

The history curriculum gives teachers and schools the freedom to use specific examples from history to teach pupils about the history of Britain and the wider world.

Gypsy, Roma and Travellers’ history can already be taught as part of schools offering a broad and balanced curriculum. Resources are available from experts in the communities themselves and bodies such as the Historical Association.

As part of Holocaust education, which is the only compulsory topic in the history curriculum at key stage 3, a wide array of resources are available to help teachers explain the persecution by the Nazis of different groups of people. The Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz programme and the knowledge and training provided by University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education include information and resources to support an understanding of the Holocaust and the Nazis’ persecution of other non-Jewish groups, including the genocide of the Roma.