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 are 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 as sentence in the Hampshire area, which includes Southampton, is detailed in the following 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 securing their child's regular attendance at school. The figures for Hampshire and Southampton local authorities for the last four school academic years since the data collection began are detailed in the following table.
Data are only collected on local authority basis.
Fined 2003 Parent failing to secure their child's regular attendance at school 35 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly failing without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 0 2004 Parent failing to secure their child's regular attendance at school 47 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly failing without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 1 2005 Parent failing to secure their child's regular attendance at school 17 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly failing without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 0 2006 Parent failing to secure their child's regular attendance at school 17 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly failing without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 0 2007 Parent failing to secure their child's regular attendance at school 5 Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly failing without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school 1 1 These data are extracted on the principal offence basis where offender is found guilty and convicted. Note: 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: QMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice Ref: Sent(OMSAS)107-09 (07/04/2009)
School academic year—Penalty notices for non attendance England Hampshire LA Southampton LA 1 September 2004 to 31 July 2005 3,843 32 0 1 August 2005 to 1 September 2006 12,150 99 16 2 September 2006 to 31 August 2007 14,625 83 256 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008 18,291 82 215