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Written question asked by Philip Hollobone (Conservative) on Tuesday, 5 July 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 July 2011. It was answered by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Monday, 11 July 2011 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Pupils: Truancy

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many prosecutions of parents were brought by local education authorities for non-attendance at school of school age children in (a) England and (b) Northamptonshire in the last year for which figures are available; and how many of those prosecuted were from Traveller communities.
Answer

The number of people proceeded against at the magistrates courts for offences under section 444 of the Education Act 1996 in England and the Northamptonshire police force area in 2010 (latest available) are in the following table.Information held centrally by the Ministry of Justice on the court proceedings database does not contain information about the circumstances behind each case, beyond the description provided in the statute under which proceedings are brought. It is not possible to identify from centrally held information whether a defendant is from a Traveller community.Court proceedings data for 2011 will be available in the spring of 2012.

Number of persons proceeded against at the magistrates courts for offences under section 444 of the Education Act 1996¹ in England and Northamptonshire police force area, 2010²,³
Area Proceeded against
England 11,260
Of which:
Northamptonshire 104
¹ Offences under section 444 of the Education Act 1996: Parent's failure to secure child's regular attendance at school. Parent knowing that their child is failing to attend school regularly failing without reasonable justification to cause him or her to attend school. ² The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. ³ Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems, generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
64651; 531 c92W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Truancy
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk