A "truancy culture" is still threatening school standards, say the Conservatives, despite a series of high-profile initiatives to tackle the problem.

The Conservatives' education spokesperson, Damian Green, says that parliamentary written answers show that �650m has been spent on anti-truancy measures since 1997 - but with no evidence of success in cutting the numbers of pupils missing school.

Despite this spending, the Conservatives say that the statistics show that more, rather than less, pupils are missing school.

"Measured by the number of children who play truant at least once, there has been a 15% increase in the truancy rate since 1996 -1997. The problem is especially acute in secondary schools," says Mr Green.

"The education department regularly announces another new crack-down on truancy. Sadly this tough talk is not matched by results. 566,000 secondary school pupils played truant at least once in the school year 2001 -2002, compared with 423,000 in 1996 - 1997, when this government came to power.

Jailing parents

"This is a 25% increase in the secondary school truancy rate under Labour."

The Conservatives argue that truancy can be tackled by giving greater powers to head teachers and to provide a wider range of vocational courses.

Truancy had proved a stubborn problem for the government, which once had aimed to cut absenteeism by a third. The total number of pupils playing truant last year was 1.3m, up from 965,000 when Labour entered office.

As part of the crackdown against absenteeism, the parents of persistent truants have been threatened with tougher fines and jail sentences.