Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many unauthorised school absences there have been in (a) St Albans constituency, (b) Hertfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) the UK since 2010; and what steps he is taking to reduce such absences.

The Department for Education publishes statistics on England only. Information on unauthorised pupil absence in St Albans constituency has been provided in the following table. Pupil absence rates at regional and local authority level are available in the local authority tables in the absence statistical first release for each year[1].

We know from evidence that pupils who have regular attendance at school are four times more likely to achieve five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and maths than those pupils who are persistently absent[2]. This is why the Department for Education reduced the threshold at which pupils are classified as being persistently absent, from 20 to 15 per cent of school missed. This measure enables schools to identify earlier those pupils with troubling attendance patterns, and to do something about them.

In 2012, we increased the level of the school attendance penalty fines of £50 and £100 to £60 and £120 respectively; and in 2013 reduced the overall timescales for paying fines from 42 to 28 days. Our reforms are working. In 2012/13 persistent absence was 300,895 pupils – a fall of almost a third from 2010. 130,000 fewer pupils are now persistent absentees.

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[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-pupil-absence

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183445/DFE-RR171.pdf