PRESS RELEASE

May 11 2010

For immediate release

Government refuses to release human rights advice on sex and relationships education

The Government has today refused the Children’s Rights Alliance for England’s request for details of legal advice given to Ed Balls MP when, as Children’s Secretary, he was considering limiting parental powers to withdraw children from sex and relationships education. CRAE’s Freedom of Information Act 2000 application was turned down by the Department for Children, Schools and Families on the basis that it would be against the public interest and could have ‘a corrosive effect on the conduct of good government’.

In April, a decision was made by Ministers to drop all provisions from the Children, Schools and Families Bill relating to Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE). This had the effect of retaining 19 as the age until which parents may withdraw their children from sex and relationships education, and followed the failure of MPs to reach consensus on a lower age through debates in Parliament.  
 
In a letter to the Conservatives children’s lead, Michael Gove MP, the Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said he made the decision on the basis of legal advice which stated that an age of 16 for parental withdrawal (as proposed by the Conservatives, rather than the age of 15 proposed by the Government) – violated the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.
 
Sam Dimmock, CRAE’s head of policy and public affairs, said of the decision to withhold:
 
‘It is essential that decision-making on issues as important as children’s right to receive and participate in sex and relationships education is transparent, clear and based on sound human rights advice. If lowering the age at which parents can withdraw their child to 16 would contravene human rights law, how does retaining an age of 19 comply? Denying access to the legal advice given to the Secretary of State on the fulfilment of the Government’s human rights obligations towards children cannot be in the public interest.’
 
CRAE is now carefully considering its next steps.

Further information
Sam Dimmock, head of policy and public affairs
 020 7278 8222  020 7278 8222
sdimmock@crae.org.uk
 
Notes for editors
1. The Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) is an alliance of statutory and voluntary organisations and individuals seeking the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in England. Our vision is of a society where the human rights of all children are recognised and realised.
 
2. Throughout the passage of the Children, Schools and Families Bill, CRAE lobbied for the right of parental withdrawal from sex and relationships education to be withdrawn altogether, on the basis that it probably violates both the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The power for parents to withdraw children from the non-biological aspects of sex education was introduced in 1993.

3. In 2008, a report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child endorsed by over 100 NGOs called for the removal of the parental right to withdraw children from sex and relationships education.