Lord Sandhurst (Con)

My Lords, I will also speak to Amendment 467. These amendments have the support of the noble Baronesses, Lady Morris of Yardley and Lady Cash, who are not here at this late hour. I also support Amendment 502YE, to which I put my name, in the name of my noble friend Lady Barran. Both my amendments are concerned with RSHE and the rights of access by parents and carers to the relevant teaching materials. In doing this, I stress that I support the teaching of RSHE. But it is a sensitive area, as I think we all know, and it is important that parents know what is being taught. Not least, that is because—although I hope they will not—parents have the right to request that their child be withdrawn from some or all of sex education to be delivered. If parents can be reassured about the content, they are less likely to be suspicious and to remove their children. However, schools have been entering contracts with external providers of RHSE teaching materials which forbid the schools from showing them to others. This has created suspicion and unhappiness and, on occasion, parents and carers have resorted to litigation. That is not helpful to the education of our young, and makes it more likely that children will be withdrawn. The National Parent Survey 2025 was published last week. It found, among other things, that 23% of parents say that their child has been exposed to inappropriate content in an RHSE class and 71% think it important that schools consult them on the content of such lessons. Parents must be entitled and should be allowed to see the materials from which RHSE is being taught, but they have faced spurious legal arguments of commercial confidentiality or copyright. We must make the content accessible and remove cause for suspicion. The purpose of these amendments is to create a statutory obligation on schools to make all resources for use in RSHE properly accessible to the public.