Children as young as 13 are being asked when they first had sex in a survey funded by the Welsh government, raising fears that child abuse is being “normalised”.

All mainstream secondary schools in Wales are invited to participate in the student health and wellbeing survey, run by the School Health Research Network every two years, with more than 200 schools taking part in 2019. The census of pupils aged 13 to 18 covers sex and relationships, smoking, alcohol, drugs, family life, nutrition, sport and gambling.

One section for pupils in Year 11 to Year 13 – and optional to those in Year 9 and 10, who are aged 13 to 15 – asks “how old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time” with answers ranging from “11-years-old or younger”, through each year to 18.

The survey, which took place again last autumn, asks them if they used emergency contraception the last time they had sex, whether they used a condom and whether birth control pills were used.

Another question asks: “Have you ever sent someone a sexually explicit image of yourself?”

Safeguarding concerns

The survey has prompted warnings from parents that safeguarding has “barely” been considered.

Parents’ campaign group Safe Schools Alliance UK said that while collecting data was “laudable”, the survey had got it “horribly wrong” and it was “shocked at this being done in the name of health”.

“We are alarmed that ‘11 years or younger’ is one of the multi choice answers given for questions such as “at what age did you first get drunk/use cannabis/have sexual intercourse,” said spokeswoman Tanya Carter.

“11-year-olds do not ‘have sex’, they are raped. This has the potential to normalise serious child protection issues.

“A free text box would be better.

“Inclusion seems to have been treated as an add on and safeguarding barely considered at all.”

In January, the Scottish government also faced calls to scrap a similar health and wellbeing census that asked 14-year-olds about anal sex. Ms Carter said: “As with the Scottish survey, no consideration appears to be given to how these questions would be received by abused children.”

Questions on drink and drugs

Welsh children are also asked how old they were when they first smoked “more than a puff”, used cannabis or got drunk. If pupils say they smoke, they are asked where they buy their cigarettes, such as “a street market or an ice cream van”.

They are also asked if they have been offered “weed, marijuana, dope, pot, hash, grass, bud, skunk, spliff/joints”, mephedrone or nitrous oxide, and whether they “think it is OK for someone your age to try taking cannabis to see what it’s like”.

In the survey, pupils are not asked for their biological sex, but rather if they were “described as male or female at birth” or what they “identify myself as”.

A third question on if they are a boy or girl includes the option “neither word describes me/I do not want to answer”.

A separate optional survey for Welsh primary school students, used by 76 schools last year, asks children if they are a boy, girl, do not want to answer or “prefer to self-describe”.

The School Health Research Network Survey has received £1.1 million from Mark Drakeford’s Labour government since 2019, an investigation by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, shared with The Telegraph, found.

Standard of education in Wales

A 2019 report by the National Foundation for Educational Research found that Wales had the lowest score in the UK in reading, mathematics and science when measured by the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA). It was also below the OECD average in all three areas.

Wales’s shadow minister for education, Laura Anne Jones, told The Telegraph: “From what I can see this is grossly inappropriate. It’s deeply concerning that the Labour government is obsessing over the details of our students’ private lives and not focussing on getting standards up.

“Labour’s embarrassing record has left Wales bottom of the PISA league tables.

“This is clearly not age appropriate, it’s absolutely fundamental that any survey going to our children and young people is age appropriate. Labour’s priorities for our children’s education leaves a lot to be desired.”

A Welsh government spokesman said: “The Student Health and Wellbeing Survey, which takes places every two years, provides high quality data on the health and wellbeing of young people aged 11–16 in Wales. The survey is developmentally-appropriate and forms an important part of our commitment to improving mental health and wellbeing in schools.”