Stormont’s education committee has been told there will be no immediate price cap on school uniforms, despite the minister bringing new legislation before the Assembly to cut the cost for parents.
A bill was introduced by Paul Givan last month, but will have to be scrutinised and debated by MLAs before it becomes law.
Members were told there are doubts on the ability to legally introduce price controls, with the onus remaining on schools to make their uniforms affordable.
Department of Education official Margaret Rose McNaughton told the committee that a recent consultation on proposals showed a “widespread support” for measures to reduce the cost of uniforms.
She said the bill, when passed, will place an “explicit duty on the department to introduce statutory guidelines” and that “schools will have to address unfair aspects”.
But while any initial legislation will enable a process for a cap to be set on either the cost of individual uniform items, or the total cost, she said there are further “complexities” in being able to do that.
Ms McNaughton added that the department had taken legal advice and spoken with the Competition and Markets Authority.
“Yes, you could have a cap as a short-term measure, but in this instance the costs are being driven by the design from and behaviour of the schools,” she added.
“Our hope is that we can change school behaviour, that they choose designs that are more cost effective.
“We would need to be really clear how we have come to an amount if a cap is put in place. There is such a variation in the cost of uniform. Some have very low cost, some have very high. We have started drafting a consultation process on a price cap.”
Also giving evidence to MLAs, Shirley Sweeney, head of the department’s school uniform policy team, added: “We have to be careful not to get into competition law. That’s where it becomes particularly complex. The cap would not be on retailers, it would be on schools.
“There is a desire to get this right. Other than what England and Wales are currently doing, there is no provision anywhere for a price cap. England and Wales are not looking at a monetary cap, it is on a limit to the number of branded items required.
“With this legislation, schools here ‘must’ adhere to it. In other jurisdictions, they have to ‘have regard to it’. We have taken the legal advice. There has been a lot of engagement and work in this.
“There are challenges if we are overly prescriptive and get it wrong. We want this to have the desired effect.”
Ms McNaughton said she didn’t mean to “sound negative” about a price cap.
“We just want people to be aware of the risks. We have to get across that the changing behaviour of schools is the one thing that can bring down costs,” she said.
“We have started drafting a consultation document. We plan to take that forward over the coming weeks as the bill goes through the scrutiny stage, with a view to go out to consultation within a couple of months.”
Issues over the uniform allowance that some parents are entitled to were also raised, with parents elsewhere in the UK receiving much more towards the cost.
“The allowance is very much dependent on the budget we have at any time,” said Ms McNaughton.
“We did increase this by 20% two years ago and we are going through that process again, but it is all very much dependent on budget.”
She added that schools should already be preparing for the new law to come into force.
“Schools should be discussing with suppliers now as they have been made aware this legislation is coming,” she said.
“There will need to be a bit of a lead in time for children currently going through school so parents don’t have to change a uniform until another certain point in time.
“We will hope, though, that implementation will be from 2026. They will need to be clear by then what their requirements are. We will be expecting schools to show this from this summer. This is spelling out that action is necessary here.”
Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan and the SDLP’s Cara Hunter said they would like to see the bill extended to allow female pupils to wear trousers at school.
Mr Sheehan said: “One of the complaints we hear from girls, in particular from co-ed schools, is about boys running around pulling skirts. I believe that is something we should look at in the bill.”
Ms Hunter added: “Young women being allowed to wear trousers is a matter of dignity.”