A third of truants are caught with their parents

More than a third of truants caught in town centres are with their parents - and many are out shopping.

Nearly 2,000 children truanting in the runup to Christmas last year were with an adult - in most cases their mother or father.

Parents' top excuse on being stopped during truancy patrols was shopping, the Government revealed yesterday.

Others said they had allowed their child the day off because it was their birthday.

Nationwide truancy patrols began five years ago to crack down on spiralling rates of absenteeism from schools.

Police and welfare officers question every child of school age found outside in school hours, even if they are with an adult.

The extent of parents' complicity was revealed in figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Of 11,713 pupils rounded up last November and December, 4,840 did not have a valid reason for being out of school. Of these, 37 per cent were with an adult - mostly parents.

Six in ten truants were boys, while a quarter were primary school age.

Yesterday, the Government mounted a fresh crackdown on parents who let their children skip school.

A spokesman for the Every Lesson Counts campaign warned that parents faced spot fines if they took their children out of school for Christmas shoppingadding: "Perhaps the most shocking fact is that often children absent from school are with their parents."

Some 126 out of 150 councils took part in co-ordinated national truancy sweeps last winter.

These have been stopped, although some councils still organise their own.

Official figures in October showed record numbers of pupils were skiving despite crackdowns costing £1billion. Truancy rates reached a ten-year high as it emerged ministers ditched targets to curb absenteeism.