UK & Ireland in Brief

A judicial review of the Welsh Government’s decision to roll out compulsory relationship and sex education (RSE) across the whole school in Wales will be heard before the new academic year, following an application by Public Child Protection Wales.

The group of 5,000 parents and grandparents say mandatory teaching would mean the introduction to very young children of sensitive and inappropriate topics such as gender ideology, and that parents will be denied their time-honoured right to remove their child from sex education. The case will be heard at the High Court in Cardiff.

More than 12,000 new divorce applications have been filed since the new no-fault divorce laws came into effect in April this year. According to official statistics, 12,978 new applications were made in April 2022, of which 10,207 were applications by one spouse.

Under the new legislation, the parties can now make a joint application for divorce if they agree, and 2,771 joint applications were made this April. In April 2021, there were 6,764 digital divorce applications; however, an uptick in divorce applications was expected after the new laws came into force because the requirement to show fault on the part of one party was removed.

‘The chilling crushing of free speech must be countered’, the education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said after being harassed and called a ‘transphobe’ by LGBT activitists following a speaking event at Warwick University.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Mr Zahawi wrote: ‘Free speech is not a licence to spread hate, intimidate others or shut down debate.’ He added: ‘Those who resort to personal insults, intimidation or dehumanise their opponents have lost their moral compass. I was accused of inciting hatred for simply defining women as “adult human females”.’

Rock UK is celebrating a centenary of adventures this year.

Rock UK, an evangelical Christian charity providing outdoor adventure and retreats, was formed in 1922 when a group of Sunday School teachers took the children out of London, on holiday, to Littlehampton for the first time. The organisation was initially called Belgrave Trust, then after more than 50 years of expansion it was renamed Barnabas Trust in 1978 – and finally rebranded Rock UK in 2009. The charity now has four centres across the UK and hosts 60,000 visitors annually.

Teachers are under no legal obligation to accommodate children who want to change gender or to ‘compromise on single-sex spaces’ in school, the attorney general Suella Braverman said – because they cannot legally change their gender until they are 18.

Speaking to The Times newspaper, Ms Braverman said teachers should take a ‘firmer line’ and they do not have to address children by a different pronoun or let them wear a different uniform. She also suggested that teachers were encouraging gender dysphoria with unquestioning attitudes. However, her comments have been criticised by school leaders as ‘unhelpful’. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said national guidance on the issues is needed.

Ex-LGBT Christians from nine European nations met in London at the end of May for an UNASHAMED event – to show that they are unashamed of the gospel and of a past which no longer defines them.

UNASHAMED was an X-Out-Loud (XOL) event, where XOL members – formerly part of the gay community who have overcome: addiction and gender confusion; sexual confusion; depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts; confusion, loneliness, fear and rejection – came together to show they are living proof of freedom in Jesus. XOL is a project of Core Issues Trust.

A lack of volunteer youth workers is the most significant concern for churches across the South West of England, a survey has revealed.

More than 1,000 churches and organisations working with children and young people in the region were surveyed by South West Youth Ministries (SWYM). The issue was a particular challenge for smaller churches and those in rural areas. Many pre-Covid volunteers have not been able to return since the pandemic. The research also identified challenges for churches in training, recruiting and retaining paid workers.