Father wins fight over term-time holiday
The High Court has ruled a father should not be prosecuted for taking his daughter on an unauthorised term-time holiday.
Campaigners against the Government’s tighter holiday restrictions say the ruling is pivotal for parents.
Jon Platt had refused to pay a £120 fine imposed when his daughter missed seven days of school for a trip to Disney World Orlando in April 2015.
Mr Platt, who crowdfunded £25,000 to cover the legal costs of fighting his case, argued that his daughter had attended school regularly and was there for over 90% of the time – enough not to be classed as persistent truancy by the Department for Education.
Magistrates had earlier agreed there was no case to answer as, overall, his daughter had attended school regularly.
But Isle of Wight County Council had challenged the decision and had asked the High Court to look again at the case.
Today Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mrs Justice Thirlwall ruled that the magistrates had not ‘erred in law’ and had made the right decision.
Andrew Shelton, MD of flight search website Cheapflights.co.uk, said: "Hopefully this ruling will lead to some relaxation of the rules to flatten out those peak demand periods, giving everyone the chance to enjoy the benefits of a family getaway."
According to the most recent figures, 50,414 fines were issued to parents in the academic year 2014/15, generating £3 million.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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