Overview
- Department for Education figures show 459,288 penalty notices in 2024/25, up 4% year on year and accounting for 93% of all unauthorised absence sanctions.
- Fines stand at £80 per parent per child, rising to £160 after the payment window or for a second notice within three years, with repeat breaches potentially prosecuted and fines up to £2,500.
- Regional variation is stark, with the North West issuing 83,807 holiday fines by volume and Barnsley posting the highest rate at 1,672 per 10,000 pupils.
- Local enforcement diverges: Portsmouth and Hampshire brought 198 and 162 prosecutions for non-payment respectively, while Southampton reported no prosecutions in three years despite more than £1m in fine income across the area.
- Adoption of the 2024 national guidance and its five-day unauthorised threshold drove sharp local increases, including a jump in Westmorland and Furness from 89 to 2,074 notices in one year.