Explanatory memorandum on the Oliver McGowan code of practice
Explanatory memorandum to Parliament about the Oliver McGowan code of practice on statutory learning disability and autism training.
Applies to England
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This explanatory memorandum (EM) is the government’s written evidence to Parliament about the 2025 revised draft version of the Oliver McGowan code of practice on statutory learning disability and autism training.
The government ran a consultation on the draft code of practice between 27 June and 19 September 2023. An easy read version of the consultation ran between 4 September and 16 October 2023.
Feedback gathered from the consultation was considered to inform the revised version of the code of practice. The revised version was laid before Parliament on 19 June 2025 (alongside this EM) and published on GOV.UK.
The revised code is laid in Parliament for 40 days. After the 40 days have elapsed (on 6 September 2025), if neither House of Parliament resolves not to approve it, the revised code will become ‘final’.
The EM refers to the code as the ‘draft code’, since at the time of publication, the code is not final until it has completed the required 40-day laying period in Parliament. It is, however, referring to the final version of the code and not the previous version of the draft code which was published in 2023.