Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of reports by the BBC’s Panorama programme in 2010 that approximately 5,000 pupils in the UK are being taught the Saudi national curriculum, what action has been taken to ensure that school text books originating in Saudi Arabia which propagate hate speech and religious intolerance are not being used in schools, clubs and weekend schools in the UK.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all children learn in a safe environment, protected from extremist or hateful views wherever they are receiving education. We are taking firm action where concerns arise, and have taken a number of steps to strengthen regulation in schools. Ofsted now inspects schools on the requirement to actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, as well as on the breadth of the curriculum, which should prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. In addition, we have provided further resources to Ofsted to allow them to increase their investigative work into unregistered independent schools. Wherever such schools are found to be teaching hate or intolerance, we are taking action to close them and prosecute those operating them.

Ofsted have not found any evidence of the text books referred to in the programme being used in schools that they have inspected.

We have also taken steps to increase oversight of out-of-school settings, such as clubs and weekend schools. Prevent duty statutory guidance sets out the expectations on local authorities to take steps to understand the range of out-of-school settings in their areas and to ensure that children attending such settings are safeguarded, including from the risk of being drawn into extremism and terrorism. We set out plans to introduce a new system of regulation for out-of-school settings in our call for evidence which closed earlier this year. The proposed system would allow Ofsted to close such settings where there was evidence that they were engaging in extremist teaching or failing to adequately safeguard the children in their care. We received a large number of responses and will set out next steps in due course.