Parents who cheat to get their children into popular state schools are to escape the threat of being prosecuted or sued after councils were told yesterday to step up their checks instead.

Ed Balls, Schools Secretary, had said he would consider sanctions including civil action against parents giving a false address or other fraudulent details in applications.

But such powers were not in proposals from Ian Craig, Chief Schools Adjudicator. Instead, he said councils should check addresses and other details on at least 10 per cent of application forms, set up telephone lines for whistleblowers and launch publicity campaigns. He estimates that there are at least 4,200 cases of cheating a year.

He also proposed that children who start at a school but whose parents are found to have lied must have their places withdrawn. Mr Balls watered that down, saying such children should keep their places for up to a fortnight for their parents to appeal.

Parents who move within a year of being offered a school place will have their application re-examined.

The new powers would take effect from 2012.

Education authorities, many of whom have pressed for powers to prosecute parents who cheat, reacted coolly, suggesting most of the proposals were already policy at councils with heavily over-subscribed schools. Shireen Ritchie, chair of the Local Government Association’s board for children and young people, said: “Councils are already alert to the problem and work hard to make the process as fair as they can for all involved.

The adjudicator’s recommendations were published as the Government confirmed that one in three parents in London missed out on their top choice of school for their children for September.

In Wandsworth, south London, where competition was toughest 52 per cent missed out. First-choice admissions were also hard to come by in Southwark (45 per cent), Hammersmith and Fulham (45 per cent), Lambeth (42 per cent) and Lewisham (40 per cent).

In outer London, the highest proportions of parents and children missing out on their first choice of school were in Croydon, Merton and Redbridge (all about 42 per cent) and Kingston (40 per cent).

In the South-East, the highest proportion of disappointed families was in Slough (57 per cent) and Buckinghamshire (44 per cent), both of which have selective secondary schools.

Nationally 89,000 parents — one in six — missed out on their top choice of secondary school for their children this month, official figures confirmed.

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