The Ministry of Justice collects data for England and Wales on prosecutions brought against parents under the Education Act 1996 for the offence under s444(1) of failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school; and for prosecutions under s444(1A), the aggravated offence of knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly. It is possible, because of the way courts record data that some data is collected under the more general heading of various offences under the Education Act 1996.
The information on the number of parents sentenced and given fines or immediate custodial sentences in the Hertfordshire area is detailed in the table. The Ministry of Justice only collects information on prosecutions based on police force regions.
The Department also collects and publishes data on penalty notices (fines) issued by local authorities in England to parents for not ensuring their child’s regular attendance at school. The figures for the last four school academic years since the data collection began are detailed in the table. Data are only collected at local authority level.
Fined Immediate custody 2003 Parent failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school 6 0 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 10 0 2004 Parent failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school 17 0 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 6 0 2005 Parent failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school 26 0 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 1 0 2006 Parent failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school 47 0 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 0 0 2007 Parent failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school 42 1 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 0 0 1 These data are extracted on the principal offence basis. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice
School academic year—penalty notices for non attendance England Hertfordshire LA 1 September 2004 to 31 July 2005 3,843 9 1 August 2005 to 1 September 2006 12,150 10 2 September 2006 to 31 August 2007 14,625 28 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008 18,291 82 Source: Department for Children, Schools and Families data March 2009