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Skirts banned from school

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Dear Department for Education,
I am requesting information of the legality for a school to completely ban skirts from the young women of the student body. I have read about the cases where it was unconstitutional to ban pants from the female student body, but am unclear about skirts.

Yours faithfully,
Ava M.

MINISTERS, Department for Education

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ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear Ava, 
 
Thank you for your email of 20 May, enquiring about school uniforms. 
 
The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in unprecedented levels of
correspondence for the department, and I apologise for the delay in
responding to you. 
 
Disputes about school uniforms should be resolved locally, in accordance
with the school’s published complaints procedure. In law, governing bodies
must have a complaints procedure in place, which would deal with issues
such as a complaint about school uniform. Governors should aim to work
with parents to arrive at a mutually acceptable outcome.

It is for the governing body of each school to determine uniform
policy/dress code. They must ensure that they do not discriminate on the
grounds of sex in the application of their uniform policy. No legal
precedent has been set; ultimately, it would be for the courts to decide a
sex discrimination issue.
 
All schools must also ensure that their school uniform policies are
compliant with equality law. We issue advice to help schools understand
how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the
act: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....

Schools must have regard to their obligations under the Human Rights Act
1998 (it is here rather than in relation to equality law that most case
law has been determined to date) as well as under equality law, and that
they need to be careful that blanket uniform policies do not discriminate
because of race, religion or belief, gender, disability, gender
reassignment or sexual orientation. Consequently, it will be up to the
individual school to consider the implications their uniform requirements
have on their pupils.

I hope this reply is helpful to you. 
 

Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2021-0027809. If
you need to respond to us, please visit
[1]https://www.education.gov.uk/contactus and quote your reference number.

 

As part of our commitment to improving the service we provide to our
customers, we are interested in hearing your views and would welcome your
comments via our website at:
[2]https://form.education.gov.uk/service/TO....

Yours sincerely

 

Emily 

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Web: [3]https://www.education.gov.uk
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