Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, for each year following the coming into force of section 437 of the Education Act 1996, how many parental appeals have been made to the Secretary of State under that section, and how many such appeals have (1) been granted and (2) resulted in a request that the local authority reconsider the case.

It is important that parents have a right of appeal when they disagree with a local authority’s decision to not revoke a School Attendance Order. Section 442 of the Education Act 1996 gives parents this right of appeal to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education. If a person is convicted under section 443 of the Education Act, they may be able to appeal the decision of the magistrate through the criminal courts in the usual way. Section 437 does not provide for a specific parental appeal process, but the parent could apply for the School Attendance Order to be revoked under section 442.

The government is committed to ensuring that the section 442 process is as robust and transparent as possible for those parents who make use of it. However, we are unable to publish the requested information as it could potentially lead to the identification of individuals and the outcomes of these requests, which would go against the intentions behind the revocation process.

This potential for identification and outcomes is due to the low number of individuals who have requested the revocation of a School Attendance Order within the specified timeframe.