The council has fined parents almost £400,000 over the past three years for missing school in Brighton and Hove.
And the number of fines handed out has shot up since the coronavirus pandemic, trebling from 755 in 2021-22 to 2,522 in the current 2023-24 school year.
The record number of fines could well be even higher because the figure for this year runs until Monday 24 June – about a month before the end of the summer term.
The legal firm LawExpert.co.uk said that it obtained the figures from Brighton and Hove City Council through a freedom of information request.
The £60 fines for unauthorised pupil absences rise to £120 if they are not paid within 21 days, with the amount going up to £160 from the start of next term.
If they remain unpaid after 28 days, the council can take parents or carers to court and LawExpert.co.uk said that the council had prosecuted more than 100 cases.
Courts can dish out fines of up to £2,500 or impose a prison sentence of up to three months.
The law firm said: “Fines amounted to a total of £58,320 in 2021-22, rising to £143,280 the following year.
“For this academic year, to Monday 24 June, £185,820 worth of penalty notices have been handed out to parents, giving a grand total of £387,420 in fines issued since 2021.
“Parents who don’t pay the fine in time can be subjected to further action which could include an education supervision order, community order or even a jail order.
“In Brighton and Hove, the council confirmed 101 cases that were sent for prosecution following non-payment.
“There were 1,233 instances where the fine was not paid within 21 days – that’s 24 per cent of the overall figure since 2021.”
The Department for Education said: “Fines are a last resort and parents will be offered support to help improve their child’s attendance first.
“The vast majority of fines for unauthorised absence (89 per cent) are issued for term-time holidays.”
LegalExpert.co.uk said that it had a team of experts on hand for anyone who had concerns about fines for unauthorised absences, with a 24-hour helpline and a live chat service on the firm’s website.
What did they spend the money on?
What with these fines, parking fines and environmental enforcement fines, it does beg the question should any organisation be in a position to levy financial penalties when they are the principal.beneficiary?
There is a very clear conflict of interest and no incentive to be fair and reasonable. Irrespective of one’s thoughts on the rules in question, they colossal increase in income in recent years makes me think that local authorities should have these powers to fine people removed.
I’d quite like my bank to donate any charges or interest associated with my overdraft to Oxfam but I doubt it’s going to happen, despite them both making the charge and benefiting from it.
The council budget, inflation adjusted, in 2010 was £1.035bn this years figure is £935m. £400k over three years is not a significant revenue item for what is, in real terms, a falling figure they have to spend each year.
Your arrangement with your bank is contractual, unlike that with the local authority. You have a choice with the former.
You mention that 400k is not a significant income and so , presumably, you have no objection to my point about the conflict of interest, as removing the council powers to fine will make little difference.
Your argument is increasingly sounding like someone who’d end up saying the state shouldn’t levy any taxes as citizens have no choice but to pay and the state is the beneficiary of the revenue received.
I congratulate you on your first class degree in ‘Strawman Arguments’!
All these fines are avoidable.
Don’t want a parking fine then don’t park where you shouldn’t.
Don’t want a speeding fine then don’t speed.
Don’t want a bus lane / red route fine – again easily avoidable.
Councils can levy these fines because they have been given the legal powers to do so by Parliament.
But it seems parents are factoring in these fines into the calculations when making their holiday decisions.
On the latter point; is anyone surprised by that?
Indeed, when fines are outweighed by the benefit of conducting themselves in this way, it is little wonder why people choose to make that decision. I’ve experienced the same logic be applied to fly tipping and antisocial parking.
Simple solution: change the fine structure. Work out how much the family saved by truanting, multiply it by (let’s say) five, and that’s your fine.