Labour MP leads new bid for compulsory sex education

A Labour MP has announced that he will continue his party’s fight to make sex education compulsory by launching a new bill later this month.

Rhondda MP Chris Bryant will tell MPs that if the UK is to shed its title as teenage pregnancy capital of western Europe, then all children must attend sex and relationship education (SRE) classes.

The backbencher and former Anglican minister will unveil his plans on 8 September using the ten minute rule.

He said: “The figures for teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections in the UK are still very high, yet we have consistently failed to provide young people with decent sex and relationship education that really helps them make responsible decisions for themselves.

“Making sure every school does this properly is long overdue.”

If successful, the bill would mean that children attend sex education classes based on the Gillick principle, a legal precedent that states that under-16s who fully understand the implications of their choices are free to make their own decisions.

In a 2009 pamphlet entitled Teenage Mums, the Cardiff-born MP said that sex education should be “well taught, by specialist staff” and that “it will be necessary to provide additional training for existing staff – or for health professionals to be trained in SRE.”

He added that sex education classes should be taught to children before they reach puberty.

The bill looks set to anger faith leaders and pro-life compaigners who have previously objected to Labour’s efforts to make personal, social and health education (PSHE) a statutory subject and thus make sex education classes mandatory for pupils.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has already launched a pressure campaign against Mr Bryant’s forthcoming bill, asking supporters to express their concerns to MPs.

A briefing published by the group alleged that compulsory SRE is “designed to promote access to abortion services” and that such classes have a tendency to “present indecent material in the classroom”.

The previous attempt to make sex education compulsory, led by former children’s minister Ed Balls, was defeated ahead of the last general election by Tory opposition.

In response to the latest plan, a spokesperson for the government’s department for education said: “We want all young people to benefit from high quality PSHE teaching. We will make an announcement on future plans for the curriculum as a whole, including PSHE, in the autumn.”