PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(29 January 2026)

The department does not hold data on the total number of parents that have been prosecuted for their child’s non-attendance as this is a matter for the courts. However, our statutory guidance is clear that schools should take a ‘support first’ approach to pupils’ attendance and prosecutions should only be used as a last resort, where all other routes have been exhausted or deemed inappropriate in the circumstances of the individual case.

A new national framework for penalty notices came into effect from August 2024 designed to embed our support-first approach and improve consistency and fairness across the country. Data collected by the department from the first year of the new framework (the 2024/25 academic year) shows 148 cases reported where a parent was prosecuted due to reaching the limit of two penalty notices within three years. Comprehensive data on prosecution offences is collected by the Ministry of Justice.