Explanatory memorandum on the Oliver McGowan code of practice

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 draftrevised wascode is laid beforein Parliament for 40 days,days. duringAfter whichthe time40 eitherdays have elapsed (on 6 September 2025), if neither House mayof haveParliament resolvedresolves thatnot to approve it, the revised code bewill notbecome approved.‘final’.