Write to Rees-mogg to speed up Bill

Last week’s letter from Liz Hardman highlighted the dilemma facing many local parents who have lost income or even their jobs as a result of the pandemic.

They have to pay for a school uniform for their children which at secondary level may cost as much as £400 per child (including sports kit) while at the same time finding the money to put food on the table and pay the rent or mortgage.

In some case they may have to replace grown-out-of uniform that has been hardly worn as a result of schools being closed.

There are ways in which school heads and governors could ease the burden at the present time - for example by not insisting uniforms come from one monopoly supplier or by setting up an exchange system for worn uniform items.

Such suggestions are made in Mike Amesbury’s Private Member’s Bill on Guidance for Schools on Uniform which is still awaiting debate in Parliament.

The Government is said to have given this Bill its backing but after a year it it is still no nearer to becoming law.

I would like to suggest that readers who feel like I do write to the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-mogg, asking him to find parliamentary time to get this Bill debated at its Third Reading and (hopefully) on to the statute book.

He can be contacted by email at: jacob.reesmogg.mp@parliament.uk. Or you can write to him at: House of Commons, London, SW1A0AA.

John Bull Honorary Alderman, Bath and North East Somerset Council