Freedom of information response

In relation to parents being fined for taking their children out of school during term time, for each school year from September 1 2015 to present date - including where possible how many have been handed out during the current 2022/23 school year - please kindly provide data on the number of unauthorised absences.

Further, in each school year from September 1 2015 to present date - including where possible how many have been handed out during the current 2022/23 school year - please provide data on the number of fines you have awarded

Further, in each school year from September 1 2015 to present date - including where possible how many have been handed out during the current 2022/23 school year - please provide the number of parents you have prosecuted for non-payment of fines.

Further, please can you also break all of the above data down into primary and secondary schools.

Please see the attached excel spreadsheet which provides available data for academic years 2015/16, 16/17, 17/18, 18/19, 19/20, 20/21, 21/22 and 2022/23 to date.

We are not able to provide accurate data for the number of unauthorised absence sessions without looking into individual cases; this would take over 18hrs to collate.

In respect of ‘Penalty Notices issued’ and ‘prosecution data’ for the earlier academic years;  we are not able to provide this broken down into Primary and Secondary due to the way the data was gathered then. This would require us to go into individual records which would take over 18hrs to collate.

In issuing our response the council have applied S12 of the Freedom of Information Act. 

This means that the council does not have to comply with your request if the cost of doing so exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’, which for local authorities is 18 hours.  This applies to the time taken spent locating and collating the requested information.  

If you wish to narrow the scope of your request and resubmit this to the council then of course we may be able to provide this information..

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the council have managed your FOI request you can pursue an Internal Review by contacting us using the above email address. An internal review must be submitted within 40 working days of your original reply. Your request will be considered by a senior member of the Information Management Team who will update you with the outcome of the review.

If you remain unhappy following the outcome of your Internal Review you may wish to refer your case to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and details of this organisation can be found at www.ico.org.uk . Please be advised that the ICO will not consider your case until they have confirmation that you have already been through the Internal Review stage with the council.