PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Pupils: Absenteeism (5 September 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many fines were issued to parents for taking children on holiday during term time at (a) independent and (b) maintained schools in the last year.

Asked by:
Sir Desmond Swayne (Conservative)

The department collects information from local authorities on penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence. This is published in the statistical release on Parental Responsibility Measures, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/parental-responsibility-measures.

Information is not collected on the type of school the penalty notice relates to. Independent schools set their own attendance policies and penalty notices are not issued for pupils in these schools.

In England, in the 2022/23 academic year, 356,181 penalty notices were issued for unauthorised family holiday absence in state funded schools, including academies.

Answered by:
Stephen Morgan (Labour)
10 September 2024