Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Statutory Guidance on Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education will include (a) variations in sex characteristics and (b) intersex.

Compulsory Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) should help pupils to understand that society consists of a diverse range of people. The department is currently consulting on updated RSHE guidance, with a view to finalising it later in the year. The consultation runs until 11 July 2024 and can be found at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/rshe-team/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance/.

The draft guidance includes a requirement that pupils should be taught about equality and the law relating to the protected characteristics by the end of their secondary education. The guidance is also clear that pupils should be taught the importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them.