Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to ensure the safety of children with allergies in English state schools.

The government is committed to improving allergy safety in schools.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act introduces a new duty requiring all schools in England to put allergy safety measures into place. Schools will be required to have allergy safety policies, review them at least annually and publish them on their website. A regulation-making power will permit my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education to place specific allergy safety duties, including requiring schools to stock adrenaline devices, to secure allergy awareness training, the recording and reporting of incidents and the content of allergy safety policies.

Schools will be required to have regard to statutory guidance. Draft statutory guidance was published for consultation on 6 March. The consultation closed on 15 May, so the new guidance can be published in the summer and come into effect from September 2026.