Parents fined for kids’ holidays

MORE than one thousand parents were issued with fines last year for taking their kids out of school to go on holiday.

New figures published by the Department for Education reveal that 1,178 fines were handed to parents in the city in 2017-18.

That is an increase on the 797 fines issued the previous year and is at the highest level since 2013-14, when modern records began.

The Department for Education said that the rise could be down to a number of high-profile court cases that “may have affected trends in recent years”.

Most of the fines handed to mums and dads in Hull were because of unauthorised family holidays (1,010).

The remaining 168 fines were given for other unauthorised absences.

Parents have a legal duty to make sure their child attends school. If they don’t, the child’s headteacher can request that the local authority issues the parent with what is known as a “fixed penalty notice”.

This is a fine of £60 if paid within 21 days, an amount that rises to £120 if paid between 22 and 28 days.

If the money goes unpaid then the local authority can begin the process of prosecuting the parent.

In Hull the majority of the fines (770) were paid within 28 days, and there were 154 that were withdrawn.

This can happen for various reasons, but includes if the notice contained errors or if the council chose not to prosecute the parent despite failing to pay the fine.

There were, however, 254 prosecutions made against parents who hadn’t paid the fine.