The number of parental fines in England for children’s poor school attendance has risen sharply since the government ban on term-time holidays was introduced, according to the BBC.
Almost 64,000 fines have been issued since the law changed last September, a rise of about 70%, local authority data shows.
The ban has drawn opposition from parents, with hundreds of thousands signing petitions against the new rules and calling for the government to take action against holiday companies who raise their prices at peak times.
BBC researchers contacted all 152 councils in England and received full responses from 118 – 78% of the total.
Overall the figures suggest that in England parents received at least 63,837 fines in the academic year to July 2014, compared with 37,650 fines in the previous 12 months.
The number of fines appears to have been highest in Lancashire, with 3,106 over the year – up from 1,125 the year before.
In Kent, there were 2,973 fines in the year to July, but the rise was less steep, up from 2,868 in 2012-13.
Some fines will have been for truancy or repeated poor attendance, but most were for parents who took children on holiday during term time.
New regulations from last September have meant that school heads can no longer grant 10 days’ holiday “in special circumstances”.
However, they can still allow extended leave for more than 10 school days “in exceptional circumstances”.
But these absences are subject to strict rules, with heads expected to determine in advance the exact number of days a pupil may have away from school.
Schools minister Nick Gibb said fewer pupils were now missing lessons.