Isle of Wight Council (Appellant) v Platt (Respondent)

[2017] UKSC 28
UKSC 2016/0155
Isle of Wight Council (Appellant) v Platt (Respondent)
On appeal from the High Court (England and Wales)
The respondent requested permission to take his daughter out of school for a holiday. This request was refused by the daughter's head teacher. The respondent took his daughter out of school on holiday for 7 days. As a result, he was issued with a fixed penalty notice in respect of the absence. The respondent did not pay the penalty of £60 by the initial deadline and so he was sent a further invoice for £120. The respondent did not pay this either and so he was prosecuted on the basis of his alleged failure to secure regular attendance at school of his daughter, contrary to s.444(1) of the Education Act 1996. The respondent pleaded Not Guilty before the Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court. The defence submitted that there was no case to answer as the respondent's daughter had in fact attended school regularly. The attendance register showed attendance at 92.3%. The Magistrates' Court held that the respondent's daughter was a regular attender for the purposes of s.444(1), bearing in mind her overall percentage attendance. Therefore, they ruled that there was no case to answer. On appeal, the High Court found that the Magistrates' Court was entitled to take into account attendance outside the offence dates when determining the attendance of the respondent's daughter. The High Court certified a point of law of general public importance on the meaning of the words ‘fails to attend regularly’ in section 444(1), and the case came before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court unanimously allows the Council’s appeal, declaring that the word ‘regularly’ means ‘in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school’.