The Supreme Court has upheld the right of a local authority to fine parents who take their children on holiday during term time.
In what is seen as a landmark legal case, the Supreme Court has said that taking a child on holiday during term time without a school’s permission cannot be lawful.
Judges said that Isle of Wight Council was correct to fine Jon Platt, a father who took his daughter out of school in order to go on holiday. They instructed the case to be returned to the magistrates’ court, but added that it would be for magistrates to decide what the outcome for Mr Platt would be.
Mr Platt was fined £60 - raised to £120 when he did not pay the initial fine - for taking his daughter on a seven-day trip to Disney World in Florida in April last year.
However, magistrates ruled that he had no case to answer, because his daughter had attended school regularly during the rest of the school year.
Isle of Wight Council - Mr Platt’s local education authority - took the case to the High Court in London. There, judges backed the magistrates’ ruling, in favour of Mr Platt.
Legal challenge
The council then asked the Supreme Court for permission to launch a final legal challenge, pointing out that the case raised important issues for schools and parents across the country.
Clive Sheldon, QC, Mr Platt’s barrister, told the court that, if the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the council, “the effect would be to criminalise parents on an unprecedented scale”.
And, speaking ahead of the judgment, Mr Platt said such a verdict would mean “that regularly attending school means attending every day, whenever the school demands it - 100 per cent attendance”.
The Supreme Court’s written judgement today says: “On the agreed facts, the penalty notice was properly issued and, having failed to pay it, he should have been convicted of the offence with which he was charged unless he can establish one of the statutory exceptions.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are pleased the Supreme Court unanimously agreed with our position - that no child should be taken out of school without good reason. As before, headteachers have the ability to decide when exceptional circumstances allow for a child to be absent but today’s ruling removes the uncertainty for schools and local authorities that was created by the previous judgment.
“The evidence shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chances of achieving good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances.
“We will examine the judgment carefully and will update schools and local authorities as soon as possible so they are clear what the judgment means for them.”
Toby Young, director of New Schools Network, a government-funded charity which promotes free schools, said: “I welcome today’s judgement. All the research shows that the more time children spend in school, the better they do. Indeed, one of the reasons free schools get better results than any other type of school in key stage 1 is because so many of them have longer school days.”
Government data shows higher levels of unauthorised absence in areas of high deprivation, the network added.
Meanwhile, figures published separately this morning revealed that a rising number of parents are being prosecuted because their children have missed school without permission. In 2015, almost 20,000 parents were taken to court - equivalent to around 105 cases for each day of the school year.
Of these, the vast majority were fined. The average penalty was £176.
But parents have raised concerns about the increased cost of taking family holidays outside of term time. Analysis by travel company FairFX revealed that a family of four would pay £1,301 more for a holiday in August than for an identical holiday in June.
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