Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the report by Ofsted entitled Research review series: religious education, published on 12 May 2021; and if she will make a statement.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The Department welcomed the publication of Ofsted’s research review into religious education (RE) in May 2021, particularly given that it sought to identify factors that contribute to high quality RE curricula and teaching in schools. The Government’s policy is to allow the RE curricula to be designed at a local level, through locally agreed syllabuses or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curriculum. Whilst it is important that the review is taken into account, the Government does not prescribe how much time a school devotes to any individual subjects, including RE. It is for individual schools to plan, organise and deliver their own curriculum.