Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of legislation relating to the unauthorised absence of students from school.

Ensuring children attend school regularly and tackling the issue of unauthorised absence cannot only be enforced through the law. It requires a range of approaches to support children who may be absent from school.

Parents have a duty, under section 7 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure that their child of compulsory school age (5-16) receives an efficient full-time education either by attendance at school or otherwise. If parents choose to register their child at school, the law places a duty on the parents to ensure their child attends school regularly. The law gives schools and local authorities powers to offer parenting contracts and obtain parenting orders in relation to attendance.

In 2013, legislation was amended to make it clear that leave of absence could be authorised by maintained schools only in exceptional circumstances. It is up to individual schools to decide what constitutes exceptional circumstances.

The Department tightened the definition of persistent absence, and equipped schools and local authorities with a range of sanctions they can use to tackle poor attendance. Schools and local authorities can use a range of parental responsibility measures to provide support and sanctions to parents when their child’s attendance at school becomes a problem.

In addition, schools and local authorities can issue penalty notices to parents for failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school or local authorities can decide to prosecute.