PARENTS in North Yorkshire have been reassured that the county's truancy rates are far below the national average.

Unauthorised absence rates in the county's secondary schools stand at 0.5 per cent, and in primary schools, 0.2 per cent, against national averages of 1.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent.

North Yorkshire has some of the lowest rates out of all 150 education authorities and the county council aims to improve those figures further.

A council spokesman said: "Our preferred course of action would be to carry out occasional, targeted truancy sweeps at key locations in North Yorkshire because each sweep like this takes a lot of resources."