The full costs of the Isle of Wight council (IWC) taking Jon Platt to the IW Magistrates’ Court, High Court, Supreme Court and back to the IW Magistrates’ Court again have been revealed through a Freedom of Information request.
Mr Platt was originally found to have no case to answer by the IW Magistrates after refusing to pay a Truancy Penalty Notice for taking his then-six year old daughter out of school for a family holiday.
High Court and Supreme Court
The council appealed the decision in the High Court, who also found in Mr Platt’s favour, but after the Department for Education ‘requested’ the IWC appeal to the Supreme Court, things went up a notch.
Mr Platt was awarded legal aid to fight the case, which resulted in being sent back to the Magistrates on the Island where he lost the case.
All costs
The full costs for the Isle of Wight council are set out below.
| 2015 Magistrates Court | £693.55 |
| High Court 2016 | £24,457.33 |
| Supreme Court 2017 | £80,660.70 |
| Magistrates 2017 | £696.42 |
| Total costs | £106,508 |
| Repaid by DfE | £86,237.03 |
Breakdown of High Court 2016 costs
| Barrister’s fees | £6,390 |
| Court Fee | £235 |
| Process sever | £180 |
| In-house Lawyers | £3,021.33 |
| Defendant’s costs | £14,631 |
| Totaling | £24,457.33 |
Included with the breakdown of costs, the council stated:
As at 13 July the Isle of Wight council has recouped £86,237.03 from the Department for Education. This figure is comprised of the total Supreme Court costs and the Defendants costs of £14,631 from the High Court.
OnTheWight has asked the IWC whether the outstanding £9,054 is being sought from the DfE. We’ll update once we have a response.
Background
Jon Platt, rose to national fame in 2015 after refusing to pay Truancy Penalty Notice he’d received from the Isle of Wight council (IWC).
Mr Platt had taken his six year old daughter on holiday during term time and argued – when taken to court by the IWC – that as she had over 93% attendance recorded and the decision to take her out of school for a few days was his decision as a parent to take.
Isle of Wight Magistrates threw out the case, saying Mr Platt had no case to answer. The IWC took the case to the High Court for clarification. Mr Platt won again. The Department for Education then ‘requested’ the IWC appeal the decision in the Supreme Court and took over the case.
In April 2017, Supreme Court judges ruled in favour of the appeal and returned the case to the Isle of Wight Magistrates court which ruled against Mr Platt.
Image: Images Money under CC BY 2.0
