Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to (a) encourage more academies to adopt school uniforms and (b) make school uniforms more affordable.

The department sets out in statutory guidance that it strongly encourages schools to have a uniform and recognises the valuable role that uniforms can play in promoting the ethos of a school, setting an appropriate tone for education and providing a sense of belonging and identity.

It is for the governing body of a school (or the academy trust, in the case of academies) to decide whether there should be a school uniform, and if so, what it should be.

The government published statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms on 19 November 2021, to ensure the cost of school uniforms is reasonable and secures the best value for money for parents. The department’s guidance states that schools should keep the use of branded items to a minimum and should ensure that their supplier arrangements give the highest priority to cost and value for money. The guidance also requires schools to ensure that second-hand uniforms are available for parents to acquire.

The department’s statutory guidance on the cost of school uniform can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms/cost-of-school-uniforms.