Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate the Government has made of the average annual cost of school uniform.

The Department commissioned the Cost of School Uniform report in 2015 which found the average total expenditure on school uniform for the 2014/15 school year was £212.88.

The Government is supporting the Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Private Members’ Bill to enable us to put our guidance on the cost of school uniform on a statutory footing. The Department’s existing guidance on cost considerations will form the basis for the new statutory guidance.

Second-hand uniform and swap schemes can increase both affordability and sustainability of school uniform. The Government would therefore like to see second-hand school uniform made available for parents at all schools to acquire from the school directly or from a local, established, scheme.