Parents who fail to ensure their children attend school face instant prosecution after new figures showed the biggest rise in the truancy rate in a decade.

The number of days skipped by pupils in the past year rose by 4,500, leaving 55,000 empty desks at schools in England every day, official figures showed today.

The sharp rise in the truancy rate was blamed on a hardcore of serial absentees. The Department of Education estimates that a fifth of truancy incidents are accounted for by a "stubborn minority" just 8,000 individuals from 146 secondary schools - around 4 per cent of the school population.

Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, said that these schools will be required to identify their most frequent truants, whose parents will be placed on the Fast Track to Attendance Scheme: an instant prosecution will follow unless the child's attendance improves within 12 weeks.

The threat will be backed by a fine of up to £2,500 or three months imprisonment.

Pupils and their parents will also be given support to help increase their child's attendance rate, in the form of parenting classes or home liaison.

Miss Smith said: "It is disappointing that a stubborn minority of pupils remain determined to jeopardise their education and their futures through persistent truancy. While the causes of truancy are complex and challenging, we will focus on this minority who are responsible for much of unauthorised absence.

"We will continue to support local education authorities and schools facing the greatest challenges with targeted measures that we know work in improving attendance, but will also not hesitate to support them in using sanctions such as prosecution and penalty fines for those parents who are simply unwilling to get their children into school."

Ministers have set a national target to cut truancy rates by 10 per cent but the level of unauthorised absence in England’s schools has continued to rise for several years.

Latest research suggests that around 70,000 children are skipping school each day, despite ministers spending £1 billion on schemes to improve classroom discipline and truancy rates.

Earlier this month the Government advised teachers to offer pupils "incentives" such as being let off homework as a reward for turning up to school regularly in a bid to improve attendance.

The New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), an organisation which advises charities on how to spend their money, said two-thirds of pupils admitted they turn up for registration but skip particular lessons. This meant official Government figures, which rely on registration details, "significantly underestimate" the true scale of the truancy problem.

At the beginning of the month, Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, said measures such as fixed penalty notices for parents of truants were having a "really marked effect" on school attendance.

Compared with figures for the previous school year, total absences which include sickness and holidays during term-time agreed with the school were down slightly.

But for state secondary schools, levels of unauthorised absence increased to 1.25 per cent and primary school truancy was also up slightly.

The figures, which are provisional for the 2004/05 school year, relate to the percentage of half-day sessions missed. This is the official way of measuring school absence.

The new drive follows confirmation earlier this week that the Government is to join forces with the travel industry in November to tackle term-time holidays which account for up to 1 in 6 of all absences from school.

The Every Lesson Counts campaign will see the travel industry offer discounts and other incentives such as free child places to families making early bookings for the school holiday periods.

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