Jail parents of truants, says PM

Tony Blair today delivered a strong call for many more parents to be fined or jailed for allowing their children to play truant.

The Prime Minister, speaking in the wake of some highly publicised incidents of children running riot, said it was "completely unacceptable" that truants out of control should be "left free to roam the streets, causing misery and mayhem in local communities".

Mr Blair pointed out that local councils had powers to take parents to court in cases where they "colluded" to allow their children to stay away from school for weeks or months on end - with fines of up to £2,500 as well as up to three months in jail. He went on: "I want to see those powers used properly to help us deal with this problem.

"It's the job of parents to see that their children are at school - and they are breaking the law and failing in their duty if they don't. This is not just about education. It is about what kind of country we want to be."

The powers to fine or jail parents have been in force since March last year, but Downing Street said today their use by local authorities had been "patchy". Some councils had done little or nothing, and the number of court actions had reached a few hundred at best.

"We are stressing that we have these powers - and that they should be used," the Prime Minister's spokesman said.

Mr Blair, in a speech at a school in Manchester, said that the measures had not been "thought up in the last few days in the light of recent publicity". Nonetheless, his call is the latest acknowledgement of the damage done to the Government by increasing voter concern at the sharp rise in street crime.

The Prime Minister said that the so called crime "summit" at Downing Street this week had agreed, among other things, to make greater use of "truancy sweeps" where schools, the local police and councils work together to identify persistent truants and get them back to the classroom.

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