Families and firms pay price for term-time holiday ban

FAMILIES are being priced out of budget holidays because of inflexible rules on taking children out of school during term time, an MP has said.

Steve Double, a Conservative MP for St Austell and Newquay, has said that a blanket ban on parents taking their children away during term time barring exceptional circumstances is “controversial and unfair”.

He said Cornwall alone had lost £44 million as a result of the policy and he has heard first hand of business whose revenues dropped by 40 per cent as a result with some firms expected to lay off staff, cut their hours or reduce their stock purchases.

His comments came during the debate of an e-petition, which has gathered over 120,000 signatures, to allow parents to take children out of school at a time convenient with them for up to two weeks per year during term time.

Last week it was revealed that tens of thousands of parents have been handed fines for breaking the rules in light of a Government crackdown on absence, including strict rules on termtime holidays introduced in England two years ago.

Mr Double said the rules introduced in 2013 were “unfair” to families and parents and “detrimental to family life”. He said: “They are unfair to those unable to take holidays during school time, people who work in tourism and other sectors.

“They are also unfair to those who can’t afford to pay for a holiday during the peak holiday season.

“Holidays taken during peak season are out of the reach of many families on low incomes. In fact, many families that we would consider to be on middle incomes struggle to pay the peak season prices.”