Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 22 April 2026 to Question 111844 on Schools: Allergies, which organisation will schools be required to report allergy incidents.

Draft statutory guidance on allergy safety was published for consultation on 6 March. The consultation closed on 15 May. The new guidance is due to be published in the summer and come into effect from September 2026.

The consultation proposed that serious incidents relating to allergy safety and other medical conditions should be recorded. The report should always be shared with the governing body to consider what lessons can be learned and whether changes are required to the school, college or setting’s medical conditions and/or allergy safety policies. The report should be shared with the child’s parents, the young person or the individual involved, so they can discuss what happened and contribute their views to the consequent lessons learned review. Any learning should be shared appropriately with staff so they can act on them, reducing the chance of an incident reoccurring.

In addition, schools acting as food businesses must report any allergen-related food safety incidents to their local authority. Schools, colleges and early years settings must report incidents which arose directly from the way they undertook a work activity and which resulted in death or immediate hospitalisation to the Health and Safety Executive.