Parents paying high price

within 21 days or £120 if paid within 22 to 28 days.

Kirklees issued five penalty notices per 100 children in 2016/17 – one of the highest rates in England. The figure for Calderdale was 2.7 per 100. In Kirklees, 51 penalty notices were withdrawn in 2016/17, while it was 146 in Calderdale.

There were 160 prosecutions for non-payment of penalty notices in Kirklees and 128 in Calderdale.

In 2017, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that no children should be taken out of school without good reason.

Kirklees Council clearly warns people about the rules on its website: “The law was changed in 2013 and made it clear that headteachers may not grant leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

“You should not take your children out of school during term time unless you are granted authorised leave of absence by the headteacher.

“If you do take your child out of school without the leave of absence being authorised, the headteacher may direct the council to take measures to issue either a penalty notice or prosecute you as parents.

“In certain circumstances schools may remove the child from the register if leave of absence is taken for an unreasonable amount of time.”

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

The number of prosecutions following non-payment of penalty notices fell by 15.8% from 15,828 in 2015/16 to 13,324 in 2016/17.