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Children, Schools and Families Bill

My Lords, I appreciate that the hour is late and that a number of passionate, well informed and eloquent contributions have been made to this debate. My job now is to explain and put on the record the Government’s position. Before doing so, I should say that my understanding is that these clauses received a great deal of scrutiny in another place and that a lot of work was put into crafting them. However, the Government will be opposing the question that Clauses 11 to 14 should stand part. Let me be clear that the Government believe that PSHE should be statutory in all state-funded schools. As we have heard, statutory PSHE is regarded by many as essential in preparing young people for adult life. By reducing the age of opt-out to 15, we had intended that all children should receive at least one year of sex and relationship education before leaving compulsory education. We see that as extremely important. A large body of evidence shows that good sex and relationship education correlates well with young people waiting longer to have their first sexual experience and thus reduces teenage pregnancy rates. However, I suggest that now is not the time to go through all that.