Fine time for going on holiday

LONDON PARENTS CHARGED £118K FOR TAKING KIDS AWAY IN TERM TIME

THOUSANDS of parents across west London were fined for taking their children out of school for unauthorised term-time holidays.

The latest figures released by the Department for Education (DfE) revealed 1,888 penalty notices were issued to parents in 2016/17 for unofficial family holiday abscence.

The worst offenders were found to be in Ealing, where 987 fines were handed out, amounting to 93.6% of all penalty notices issued by the local authority last year.

In Brent, 95.4% of all fines issued were for unauthorised holiday equivalent to 247 holiday fines.

In other parts of west London, termtime holiday fines made up a smaller proportion of the totals, with 80 issued in Hounslow (35.4%), and 89 issued in Harrow (53.6%).

Elsewhere, in Hillingdon 253 holiday fines were issued, 119 in Westminster , 78 in Hammersmith and Fulham and 35 in Kensington and Chelsea.

Overall 2,361 penalty notices were issued across the the eight boroughs in 2016/17, a drop of 7.3% from 2,546 in 2015/16 - the first fall in numbers in six years.

Parents paid £118,000 in fines, with 1,614 paid within 28 days.

The fine is £60 if paid within 21 days, before going up to £120 if paid within 22 to 28 days.

The biggest drop in penalty notices issued were in Harrow, down 46.5% in a year from 310 to 166.

Meanwhile Hillingdon saw the biggest rise, up 25.6% from 301 to 378, and Ealing was the area most likely to fine parents for their children missing school, with a total of 1,055 fines issued last year.

A total of 527 penalty notices were withdrawn, and 43 prosecutions for non-payment of fines – a 41.9% drop compared to the previous year.

In the case of Isle of Wight Council v Jon Platt, the High Court and Supreme Court supported a local magistrates’ ruling in a unanimous agreement that no children should be taken out of school without good reason and in accordance with the rules alid out by the school.

Across England, there were 149,321 penalty notices issued during the 2016/17 academic year, however, the total number of fines decreased by 5.4% from 157,879 in 2015/16, the first drop in the number issued in eight years.

Regulations amended in September 2013 state that term time leave may only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and may relate to the sharper increase in penalty notices issued.

Jon Platt was ordered to pay £120 but refused to pay the fee after claiming his daughter had good attendance at school

Overall, 77.5% of all penalty notices were issued for unauthorised family holiday absence. The second most common reason for a penalty notice being issued was for other reasons, accounting for 21.4% of all penalty notices.

The number of penalty notices paid within 28 days, the number of fines withdrawn and the number of prosecutions all fell in 2016/17, reflecting the drop in the number of penalty notices issued overall.