Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many prosecutions of parents under section 444 of the Education Act 1996 were brought in each of the last three 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 we expect schools to take a ’support first’ approach to tackling non-attendance for these pupils.

The department’s statutory guidance on attendance 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, is not appropriate. The guidance sets out clear expectations on how schools, local authorities and wider services should work together to support attendance for all children.