Have thousands of Yorkshire parents been wrongfully fined over holidays?

Jon Platt, whose court case attracted national attention after he successfully refused to pay a fine for taking his daughter on holiday, is now urging others to follow his example.

In the last three years more than 40,00 fines have been issued by eight Yorkshire councils to parents for unauthorised absences, according to figures obtained by Mr Platt himself. He has submitted Freedom of Information requests to councils across the country.

Figures reveal that in some areas - including Kirklees, North Yorkshire, Sheffield and Doncaster there has been a sharp drop in the number of fines administered since May, when the High Court upheld a magistrates’ decision that Mr Platt should not be prosecuted because his daughter had satisfactory attendance.

But the figures also reveal there has been a huge number of fines issued to Yorkshire parents since the Government tightened its guidelines in 2013.

Figures show that in total 42,147 fines have been issued between 2013/14 and 2015/16. In 2014/15 16,784 fines were issued but 1,690 were withdrawn In 2015/16 councils issued 15,526 fines of which 1,457 were withdrawn.

Mr Platt also criticised Leeds City Council because the figures it provided showed the vast majority of fines issued were specifically for parents going on holiday. Mr Platt said: “In reality this is what most councils are doing but the way Leeds have presented the figures confirms they are specifically issuing fines for children going on unauthorised holidays - but an unauthorised absence is not a criminal offence.

“If these parents in Yorkshire have children who regularly attended school then they should challenge their fines.”

Leeds’ director of children’s services Nigel Richardson said: “We always encourage parents to think twice before booking holidays during term time as children with poor attendance tend to achieve less well.”

“Neither we nor our schools have any choice but to abide by the law, which changed in September 2013. We have a responsibility to ensure that any fin we issue is in line with our code of conduct and we follow statutory guidance from the government.

“We will continue to support schools and parents to ensure cildren attend school regularly and benefit from taking a full and active part in daily school life.”

Mr Platt is urging the Government to rethink its position on fines being issued for unauthorised absences.

He said he has contacted the new Education Secretary Justine Greening about the issue since his High Court victory and her appointment.

Several councils have said they are awaiting guidance from the Government following the court ruling.

And earlier this year Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers suggested that the fines system was “too blunt and instrument which was driving a wedge between schools and families.”

However after Mr Platt’s legal victory in May, which is now set to be challenged in the Supreme Court, Schools Minister Nick Gibb wrote to schools effectively urging them to ignore the judgement.

He said: “The High Court’s judgment did not establish a hard and fast rule that a pupil’s attendance above 90 per cent is regarded as ‘regular’ attendance. Instead, a decision will have to depend on the individual facts of each case.” And he added: “We understand that some parents who have already been given penalty notices and have paid the penalty are asking local authorities to withdraw the notices...However, the view of the Department is that the decision in the Isle of Wight case does not require local authorities to do this, and I would expect applications of this kind to be refused in the ordinary course of events.”