Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of parents who have been prosecuted for their child's non-attendance at school have a child that has (a) Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and (b) special educational needs and does not have a EHCP in each quarter of the last five years.

Data for prosecution of offences in England, including offences for non-attendance, is collected by the Ministry of Justice. The Department for Education does not collect data on the protected characteristics of the children of individuals who have been prosecuted for an offence related to their child’s non-attendance at school.

Nevertheless, we recognise that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities may face more complex barriers to school attendance and guidance requires schools to take a ’support first’ approach to tackling non-attendance for these pupils.

Our guidance makes clear that legal intervention, including prosecution, should only be considered where support has been exhausted, not engaged with or, in the cases of term-time holidays, not appropriate. We expect schools to work with these children and their families to remove any barriers to attendance and building strong and trusting relationships.