The threat of prosecution is proving successful in ensuring parents prevent their children from playing truant, the government has said.

Announcing new guidance to schools and courts on how to deal with the problem, education minister Ivan Lewis said that his message was "prosecution works".

A "fast track to prosecution" system is already being piloted by 30 local education authorities.

It allows for pupils with poor school attendance to be identified at an early stage, with welfare authorities seeking the cooperation of parents in dealing with the problem. The parents are given 12 weeks to co-operate, and face prosecution if they fail to halt persistent truanting.

Initial feedback from 21 local education authorities testing the scheme found that of 1490 parents threatened with legal action, 751 moved to ensure their children returned to school.

The other 739 cases reached the courts, where magistrates can dispense penalties ranging from punitive fines and community sentences, to parenting orders or custodial sentences of up to three months.

"While the vast majority of parents are willing and able to make sure their children attend school regularly, it is a sad fact that a minority do not. For those parents who deliberately condone or encourage their child's truancy, the message is clear - prosecution works," said Lewis.

"Every support and assistance will be offered to parents to help them get their children into school, but we make no apologies for encouraging local education authorities to prosecute parents who are not unable, but simply unwilling to fulfil their legal and moral obligations."

Rachel Lipscomb, chairman of the Magistrates' Association, said the new guidance would "help the courts to deal with these cases much more effectively and efficiently".

And Bob Carstairs of the Secondary Heads Association said that schools were set to ensure close cooperation with local education authorities.

The government hopes the new plans will help it reach its target of reducing school truancies by 10 per cent by May 2004.

The rate of recorded unauthorised absences in primary and secondary schools has remained unchanged at 0.72 per cent of half days lost since records began in 1994, translating into 7.5 million days missed annually, according to official figures.

"Only eight per cent of persistent truants achieve five A* to C GCSEs and around a third achieve no passes whatsoever. This is a complete waste of potential, and a passport to unemployment, anti-social behaviour and criminality," said Lewis.

"And the new guidance will support our continuing drive to tackle truancy and improve school attendance, promoting effective support where it is needed, or efficient prosecution where it is rejected."