Parents in Greater Manchester were hit with almost 24,000 fines for term-time holidays, new figures revealed.

The figure from the 2017/18 school year is more than double the previous year.

It suggests parents are increasingly willing to suck up the £60 penalty to take avoid the painful price hikes for breaks during the school holidays .

The Department for Education said that the rise could be down to a number of high profile court cases that “may have affected trends in recent years”.

Parents have a legal duty to make sure their child attends school.

If they don’t, the child’s headteacher can request that the local authority issues the parent with what is known as a “fixed penalty notice”.

This is a fine of £60 if paid within 21 days – an amount that rises to £120 if paid between 22 and 28 days.

If the money goes unpaid then the local authority can begin the process of prosecuting the parent.

Parents can save hundreds of pounds taking their children out of school for a holiday

Across Greater Manchester mums and dads in the city itself were most willing to take the fines for failing to make sure their children go to school. 

New figures published by the Department for Education reveal that 5,349 fines were handed to parents in 2017/18. 

That is nearly double the 3,086 fines issued the previous year and is at the highest level since 2013/14, when modern records began.

Most of the fines handed to mums and dads in Manchester were because of unauthorised family holidays (4,209).

A further 98 were given for students arriving late, and the remaining 1,042 fines were given for other unauthorised absences.

In Manchester the majority of the fines (4,514) were paid within 28 days, and there were 58 that were withdrawn.

This can happen for various reasons but includes if the notice contained errors or if the council chose not to prosecute the parent despite failing to pay the fine.

There were, however, 685 prosecutions made against parents who hadn’t paid the fine.

The remaining 92 cases were unresolved at the time the figures were published.

Overall in Greater Manchester there were 23,746 fines issued to parents in 2017/18 – more than double the 9,824 the previous year and a record high.

Area/Year 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18
Bolton 856 1,114 987 1,172 1,253
Bury 884 1,137 779 40 2,045
Manchester 2,064 3,435 4,579 3,086 5,349
Oldham 2,062 2,566 2,150 545 3,197
Rochdale 269 1,816 1,545 978 4,194
Salford 1,016 2,112 1,624 1,661 2,749
Stockport 580 770 455 518 1,514
Tameside 644 1,531 1,598 991 2,372
Trafford 343 574 491 289 833
Wigan 353 345 463 544 240
Total 9071 15,400 14671 9,824 23,746

Across England there were 260,877 fines handed out to parents in 2017/18 – up from 149,321 the previous year and again, a record high.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “It is important that children miss as little time at school as possible.

“The cumulative effect of missed days can be harmful to children’s education. The best way to ensure children are learning and progressing is for them to attend school during term time.

“This means that requests for time off during term time can only be authorised in exceptional circumstances, which does not normally include holidays.

“The NAHT has clear and reasonable guidance on what constitutes exceptional circumstances.

“However, the system of fines is clearly too blunt an instrument and in many cases it drives a wedge between schools and families.

“The real problem is holiday pricing.

“Neither parents nor schools set the prices of holidays.

“They will both continue to be caught between a rock and a hard place without some sensible government intervention.”

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.

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