Citizenship: Education
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Schools White Paper, what progress her Department has made on further embedding education on legal rights, the justice system and the rule of law across the school curriculum, including through the expansion of earlier citizenship education in primary schools covering law and rights.
Answered by Department for Education
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, published in November 2025, recommended that all pupils are taught citizenship content at primary as a statutory part of the curriculum, and that a new programme of study should ensure that pupils develop an understanding of rules and laws, why they are important, who makes them and the consequences of not following them.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, is considering the recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review in line with the government’s ambition to transform technical education from age 14 to 16.
The department expects there will be a public consultation on the proposals for the curriculum and assessment system in due course.
Through the existing national curriculum for citizenship, pupils are taught about the nature of rules and laws and the justice and legal systems, as well as different sources of law and how the law helps society deal with complex problems.
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