Travel agents say government plans to increase fines for taking children out of school to go on holiday is unlikely to stop parents booking term time breaks.
Fines for unauthorised absences in England are set to rise from £60 to £80 per child if paid within 21 days and from £120 to £160 if paid in 28 days, according to the Department for Education.
Agents said parents will weigh up the price differential and continue booking term time holidays, given the savings are far greater than the cost of the school fines.
Parents can save hundreds of pounds by booking holidays which depart during term time.
A recent survey by price comparison website Go.Compare said summer holidays cost on average £276 more per person than term time travel. A fifth of a poll of 2,000 respondents, surveyed in December 2023, said they would consider taking their children out of school or had already done so, with 38% saying they would do so to cut down on expenses.
Miles Morgan Travel owner Miles Morgan said parents would simply “do the numbers” and work out the cheaper option.
“They will look at how much the fine is and how much the holiday is and take a view,” he said, adding: “It will not change anything if fines go up; parents will decide it’s a risk worth taking.”
Similarly, Fred Olsen Travel director of retail Paul Hardwick said: “I don’t think it will have an impact, the fines are still less than the difference between travelling in or out of term time, so I do not believe the financial fine will make a difference on decision making.”
He said the agency chain was seeing families choosing to take children out of school one or two days before or after the official school holidays.
“This can still save customers money but means they are not taking their children out of school for a whole week. The feedback has been that this has been less about avoiding fines but to try to avoid disruption to education for their children, whilst making sure they can take advantage of all the benefits a holiday gives to their development,” he said.
The Advantage Travel Partnership said a rise in unauthorised absences since Covid showed families were placing more importance on spending time together and getting away.
She added some families simply could not afford to go on holiday otherwise. “Ultimately a lot of families have to travel in term time to be able to get the holiday they want and as we continue to see that people will prioritise travel, an increase in fines is unlikely to change this,” she said.
The Travel Network Group director Vim Vithaldas said the number of parents booking in term time would only reduce if the price gap between fines and holidays changed.
He said: “Parents who take their children out during term time typically do so in order to reduce their expenditure on holidays. We don’t expect this to change in any way unless the increased value of the fines outweighs the holiday saving.”
Greenstar Travel owner Martyn Fisher agreed: “If you are going to put fines in place, you have to make it more expensive than the holiday cost [to act as a deterrent]. Not all schools impose fines in any case.”