Debate contribution: School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill: Further Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Pat Sheehan on 29 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Pat Sheehan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

29 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill: Further Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5138873

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I take the opportunity to speak in opposition to amendment Nos 5 and 8 and in support of amendment Nos 1, 7, 9, 10 and 11. Two weeks ago, at Consideration Stage, the Assembly supported measures that gave the Bill some teeth. Throughout our scrutiny of the Bill in Committee and as we engaged with the public, families were clear: they wanted fairness. They will not get fairness if there is no scrutiny, no reporting and no enforcement. We are content to support the relocation of the scrutiny duty as proposed in amendment Nos 1 and 11. Amendment No 5 and its relationship with amendment No 12 is concerning. The Minister seems to be trying to dilute his own Bill, attempting to strip out the strong reporting duty agreed at Consideration Stage and replace it with a weaker version under amendment No 12. That is not good enough.

I will give way.

Very well. The Minister has a view on how the provision is being strengthened. In our view, however, the amendment does not strengthen it; it dilutes it. Members just have to read the amendment. It is crystal clear to us that it does not, in any way, strengthen the Bill. As far as we are concerned, amendment No 12 is a weaker version of what was agreed at Consideration Stage, and that is not good enough. Parents who are struggling to pay for a blazer or a PE kit deserve clear evidence that costs are being driven down. We do not see how that will happen. We have still not seen the guidelines, of course. Clause 5 as ordered to stand part at Consideration Stage will give parents factual information on costs. Amendment No 12 enters the realms of aspiration and warm words rather than action. Does the Minister not agree? Families need real evidence that costs are coming down, not just the Department's best guess. Amendment No 8 is another attempt by the Minister to weaken his own Bill by slipping in the word "undue". That would create a loophole that could be easily exploited. The Bill is meant to be about fairness and should therefore be about protecting young people and their families. The current wording does that. It makes clear that no child should be disadvantaged because of uniform rules. We will not support any weakening of those limited protections. We have no issue with supporting the technical tidying-up in amendment No 7, and we welcome amendment No 9, which will insert a Public Services Ombudsman report as a trigger for departmental action. That gives parents another credible route for redress. If the Bill is to have any degree of success in cutting costs for families, we need to see real accountability and transparency. Scrutiny, reporting and enforcement are key areas of the Bill, and they should be enhanced, not undermined.

476 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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