Sexual health charities fpa and Brook both seized on the report, which concluded that teaching of the subject is still poor in many secondary schools and non-existent in others.
Caroline Davey, policy manager at fpa, said: "This reinforces at the highest level all the anecdotal evidence out there, and it makes it clear that the only answer is for personal, social and health education to be compulsory in schools.
"It sends a strong message to Government that the situation we have at the moment just isn't working. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Government to ignore that."
Jan Barlow, chief executive of Brook, said: "We hope the findings of this report underline how patchy PSHE teaching is at present, and that it reinforces the need for it to be a compulsory part of the curriculum."
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