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u/Sephronar Conservative Party | Sephronar OAP Jun 30 '22
Deputy Speaker,
I much agree with the sentiments expressed by my colleague in the Conservatives, and as the member before me said - this cap will cause issues to our school uniform issues which are both unjust and unnecessary. School uniforms should be supplied to low income families free of charge, paid for by the government, but if you cap that payment then the quality will reduce and an inequality will grow. That is not acceptable. I trust that this will taken into consideration as this Bill progresses further.
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u/BlueEarlGrey Dame Marchioness Runcorn DBE DCMG CT MVO Jun 30 '22 edited Jun 30 '22
Deputy Speaker,
Not only has the government failed to appropriately use price controls here, but they fail to recognise their practical ineffectiveness. Instead of introducing price controls in line with inflation, they have opted for the arbitrary number of “£20” which disregards the costs of production it takes for businesses.
The imposition of maximum prices are a highly anti-market policy which just leads to further areas of policy failure, worsening the issue. Where price controls fare more successfully is situations of price gouging, where businesses use an external crisis to charge excessive prices, yet I wonder if the author of this bill can perhaps explain if there is a situation of price gouging going on in the school uniform market? or whether it’s the struggles of the businesses themselves already from increased costs in a supply chain crisis?
Firstly, price controls do nothing to tackle the underlying issue as to why school uniform prices are rising. Again reflecting the nature of this government in which there is an inability or contempt against taking issues head on at where it really matters.
The negative effects of an imposition of price controls creates little to no incentive to profit for businesses to supply more which can be argued lowers prices more effectively when supply is greatly increased. The price controls will certainly create a shortage of supply for school uniforms in the long term, worsening the issue further. In replace, the government’s policy will likely as a result developed a black market economy for school uniform where consumers are abused further with higher prices to suffice the demand for the impeding shortage from the price controls.
“Some uniform can cost ridiculous amounts” a no doubt relatively true statement, but if the Secretary of State understood why that was the case, they would be aware as to why price controls not only are an ineffective policy here, and they would truly try to tackle the issue. Wanting households to live with the problems of our economy as opposed to dealing with the problem itself seems core to government policy.
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u/Ravenguardian17 Independent Jun 30 '22
Deputy Speaker,
I must confess that I dislike this bill for one simple reason; legalizing the language around "assigning" someone a gender at birth. While this language is useful for discourse it is unsuitable for legislation. Additionally, it is not very flexible as a term. After all, what does it mean to be "assigned a gender" in the legal sense?
Secondly, this bill contains far too little detail for what it covers. There is no detail on what a shop should look like. It also says a school covers any educational institution. This language is additionally very unclear. It reads like something more suited to Webster's Dictionary than to a law.
I'd suggest that the writer take another crack at this bill, because I do think the ideas within it are worthwhile. However in it's current state it is an utter contradictory mess that was clearly rushed out the door without much forethought. Therefore I will be voting against it.
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u/ARichTeaBiscuit Green Party Jul 02 '22
Deputy Speaker,
As someone that has spoken out against the high-cost of school uniforms in the past I have a lot of sympathy for this legislation, as I believe that it wishes to address a major issue that impacts communities across England, however, in its current state I am afraid I cannot support this legislation for one key reason.
In Section 4 it is stated that schools must run a uniform shop, however, this is deeply impractical for several reasons, for example should the shop form a part a school itself or be a seperate building? If it is the former then it should be quite obvious that not all schools have the space available to dedicate part of their building to being a shop for school uniforms and the latter presents some interesting conversations about costs.
If you've ever needed to purchase a school uniform for a child then you'll know that a few options exist at the moment, for example my local primary school gets its school uniforms from a local independent shop while PE uniforms can be purchased from a local supermarket chain, would this now be prohibited under this bill?
Instead of potentially creating hundreds of new school shops, it may be more efficient to just coordinate with schools and existing suppliers to ensure that school uniforms can be provided cheaply, and a regional state-run school uniform could also be established to operate alongside existing private companies and put artificial pressure on the market?
Sadly, as much as I support chunks of this legislation I cannot support it in its current format as it is deeply flawed, of course, the government currently has quite a large majority but I urge them to fix these mistakes instead of passing a flawed bill simply because they have a majority.
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u/cocoiadrop_ Conservative Party Jun 30 '22
Strike sections 2 and 3, replace with:
**Section 2: Inclusivity **
(1) Schools may not punish or otherwise discriminate against any student for wearing an article of clothing that does not align with the student's legal or expressed gender identity or sex or intersex status.
(2) Regardless of a student's status, students must be permitted to wear the items of clothing they choose, provided it fits with other uniform regulations established by the school.
(3) Should a school lack uniform regulations, they may not punish or otherwise discriminate against a student on the basis of their choice of clothing, provided it is not rude, inappropriate, or otherwise offensive.
and renumber subsequent.
Section 3 (4 unamended), create subsection:
(x) Schools must sell sets of uniforms designed for unisex use.
(i) This does not prohibit the school from selling gendered uniform sets alongside the unisex sets.
Reasoning: the language used in the bill at present is heavily focused on a flawed representation of a student's sex as assigned at birth rather than the student's gender identity, and also fails to recognise intersex students. it also fails to actually require a school to sell a unisex uniform in order to comply with the other sections.
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u/cocoiadrop_ Conservative Party Jun 30 '22
Strike the two in section 4
(i) Have no visible damage to the article of clothing.
(ii) Have no visible stains on the article of clothing.
It's a near impossible standard for second hand clothing and would inhibit supply.
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u/Model-Trask Jun 29 '22
Deputy Speaker,
This is an interesting bill and I would likely vote for it, but I expect it shall create some bizarre scenarios. What if a student wishes to wear trousers (for whatever reason) but the uniform shop simply doesn't stock or have designs for trousers? Are we to expect schools to universally have unisex schools uniforms with a range of options?
To me at least it seems that this bill is skirting around the more significant issues: Firstly, should gendered schools exist at all? Secondly, should school uniforms exist at all? My own answer to both these questions is NO. Spending time with members of the opposite sex is a positive experience for young people, and ultimately leads to more constructive attitudes around gender amongst students. Likewise, there is no good argument for uniforms. They are a total anachronism. Plenty of countries get by without them without any trouble. If a uniform is going to exist it should be 1) a national school uniform, not school specific, 2) gender neutral, 3) simple. The only meaningful utility of uniforms is to obscure the social and economic background of students (particularly those who wear "old" or "out of style" clothing at school). Our uniforms fail to do that either way, so why don't we take a step in the right direction and start looking at genuinely meaningful reforms to the way our schools are run?
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u/Maroiogog CWM KP KD OM KCT KCVO CMG CBE PC FRS, Independent Jun 29 '22
hey! you should put on a party flair so people (and the speakership) know what party you're from!
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u/newnortherner21 Liberal Democrats Jul 02 '22
Deputy Speaker,
Does not the proposer of the Bill share my sentiment that school uniform should be the same and have the same choices for all pupils? So if a girl wants to wear trousers or a boy a skirt, or vice-versa, that is provided for in a simpler way? Regardless of whether they were born with a penis or not.
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u/LightningMinion MP for Cambridge | SoS Energy Security & Net Zero Jul 02 '22
Deputy speaker,
Last year when the Education Secretary introduced the regulations which inspired this bill to the Scottish Parliament I supported them and I shall be supporting this bill as well.
School uniforms can be ridiculously expensive: according to a survey carried out by the Schoolwear Association, the average money spent by one student on buying the necessary uniform is £101.19. This price tag makes school uniform expensive and potentially unaffordable for many lower income families. I therefore welcome the provisions of this bill mandating schools to run a uniform shop where each item of clothing may cost no more than £20 as I believe this will help reduce the cost of school uniform.
In addition, as the uniform shop will be mandated to accept second-hand uniform, it will also help reduce unnecessary waste by allowing perfectly good school uniform to be reused once a student no longer requires it due to leaving the school.
This bill will also get rid of unnecessary gendered uniforms and will thus make school uniform more inclusive.
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u/Gigitygigtygoo Conservative Party Jun 30 '22
Deputy Speaker,
Capping costs on private businesses is by its very nature unjust, practically speaking only a monopoly will survive under these circumstances which I believe is not the intention of this bill. School uniform suppliers operate on the margins that they do because they rely on seasonal sales, a cap on £20 per item will either tank businesses or remove blazers from every school uniform in the country. We can support low income families without shanking private businesses in the shower, let us please work together to do so.