Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to ensure that children are able to attend school wearing the correct uniform.

It is for the governing body of a school (or in the case of academies, the academy trust) to decide rules relating to appearance, including whether there should be a school uniform, what it will be and how it should be sourced.

The department issues best practice guidance to support schools with setting and implementing their uniform policy. This sets out that a school should give the highest priority to cost considerations and achieving value for money for parents, and ensure that its school uniform policy is fair and reasonable for all its students.

The government has announced its plan to put the school uniform guidance on a statutory footing and will do so when a suitable opportunity arises. This will send a clear signal that we expect schools to ensure uniform costs are reasonable.

The department’s guidance is attached and available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.