Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to provide free sanitary products to (a) girls and(b) women in (i) secondary schools, (ii) colleges and (iii) universities.

No one should be held back from reaching their potential because of their gender or background. My right hon. Friend, the Minister for Women and Equalities announced a new expert joint taskforce of government, business and the third sector on 4 March 2019, and we will work with this taskforce to develop a sustainable solution to period poverty in the UK.

Our statutory guidance on ‘Sex and relationship education’ (2000) encourages schools to make sensitive arrangements to help girls cope with menstruation, and we have incorporated this advice into our draft Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance. Schools will be required to teach these new subjects from September 2020.

Schools and colleges are best placed to identify and address the needs of their pupils; have discretion over how they use their funding; and can make sanitary products available to disadvantaged pupils if they identify this as a barrier to attainment or attendance. We support schools in addressing the needs of disadvantaged pupils through the provision of the pupil premium, equivalent to more than £2.4 billion of additional funding this year alone. We provide post-16 education and training providers with a 16-19 discretionary bursary allocation, which they can use to support young people aged between 16 and 19 who need support with costs to stay in further education.

Higher education providers are autonomous bodies and it is up to them how they meet their students’ needs. This can include providing discretionary financial support where required.

Lastly, as a government, through the tampon tax fund we provided £1.68 million for the ‘Let’s Talk. Period’ project, which is distributing sanitary products to young women and girls in need across England.