Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, if he will take steps to ensure that (a) parents with and (b) parents of children with underlying health conditions do not receive fines for unauthorised school absences during the covid-19 outbreak.

From Friday 20 March, schools, colleges and early years settings are closed to everyone except children of critical workers and vulnerable children, as part of the country’s ongoing response to COVID-19.

Guidance has been issued to schools setting out how they should record attendance at this time.

The Government has also introduced emergency legislation to allow a suspension of the requirement on parents to secure regular school attendance for their child of compulsory school age.

The Government has asked local authorities to suspend any penalty notice action or prosecutions for COVID-19 related absence with immediate effect. Local authorities should update their Code of Conduct for issuing penalty notices to make this clear. New cases should not be taken forward and any cases from 16 March should be withdrawn. This approach should also be applied to prosecutions for non-attendance.