Alistair Strathern's Bill would extend compulsory relationships and sex education from 16 to 18. MPs debate it on 4 December; campaigners have a mock textbook.
Hitchin’s MP, Alistair Strathern, is asking fellow MPs to back his Private Member’s Bill to make Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) compulsory up to the age of 18. At the moment the duty on schools and colleges to provide it ends at 16. The Bill is due its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday 4 December.
The Relationships and Sex Education (Further Education Sector) Bill was introduced on 17 June 2026. It would extend RSE into the further education sector, so that young people who carry on into further education after 16 are still taught about consent, coercive control and how to recognise the signs of abuse.
The MP’s office points out that 16 to 19 year olds experience the highest rates of domestic abuse of any age group, yet they are not guaranteed those lessons. Campaigners call it a dangerous gap.
A textbook of what fills the gap
To build support for the Bill, Mr Strathern worked with the campaign groups Make It Mandatory, Killed Women and End Violence Against Women on what they call the “Unofficial Curriculum”. The mock textbook was unveiled in Parliament Square on Monday 19 October.
Styled like a school revision guide and stamped “Make RSE mandatory up to 18 or this is their education”, it sets out the messages young people can pick up when compulsory lessons stop: violent pornography, online misinformation, and content that treats coercive control and abuse as normal. Its chapters cover coercive control, verbal abuse, economic abuse, physical abuse and the risks of AI, each paired with a page on “what proper education should teach”.
The book cites research to make its case. It quotes the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (2023) as finding that 79% of young people have accessed violent pornography by the age of 18, and a 2025 Youth Endowment Fund survey of 11,000 13 to 17 year olds which found that two in five teenagers in England and Wales had experienced emotional or physical abuse in the past year. The full textbook can be read on the Killed Women RSE to 18 page.
“Preparing young people for life”
Mr Strathern said: “Young people deserve better than the worst corners of the internet for advice on sex and relationships. Yet just as many young people begin their first serious relationships, compulsory education on these issues comes to an end.
“Education isn’t just about exams and careers, it’s about preparing young people for life. This Bill is about giving every young person the tools to recognise danger, seek help and build relationships based on respect.
“That knowledge can change lives, and, in some cases, save them.”
In his closing statement in the textbook, he adds: “The stories and evidence in this book make one thing abundantly clear: if we do not teach young people, someone else will. The internet already is.”
The campaigners behind it
Faustine Petron founded Make It Mandatory. She said: “When I was 16, I entered my first romantic relationship, as most teenagers do. I was excited for this new stage of my life, but that excitement soon wore away as the relationship became controlling and, eventually, violent.
“For the first year, I didn’t call it abuse because I didn’t have the words for it. No teacher had ever given them to me, and at that age it was hard to tell the difference between love and control.
“I started Make It Mandatory because I couldn’t accept that another generation of young people could be left as unprepared as I was. I wanted what happened to me to become a reason for change.”
For Carole Gould, co-founder of Killed Women, the cause is personal. Her daughter Ellie was 17 when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, and Carole is backing the Bill so that other young people are better equipped to spot the warning signs.
She said: “As a mother you just want to protect your child. The coercive control my daughter experienced in her first relationship was so subtle we all failed to recognise the red flags and the danger she was in.
“Ellie was only 17 when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend for ending the relationship.”
Killed Women’s campaign page says a Make It Mandatory petition calling for RSE to 18 has gathered more than 106,000 signatures (checked 20 October 2026).
What it means for you
- Now: compulsory RSE stops at 16, so a teenager in further education is not guaranteed lessons on consent or coercive control.
- If the Bill passes: RSE would be required for young people up to 18, including in further education.
- Next step: the Bill’s second reading in the Commons is on 4 December. Campaigners are asking people to write to their MP, using a template letter from Make It Mandatory, to ask them to attend and vote for it.
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