TRUANTS will be taken back to school in new sweeps announced by the Government.

At the same time, it was disclosed that of nearly 2,000 children who were stopped in the streets in the Yorkshire and Humber region earlier this year, more than 800 were truants.

Half of them were with an adult.

For the next three weeks, teams of police and educational welfare officers will be patrolling the nation's streets, shopping centres and known truancy hotspots.

Young people will be challenged to say why they are out of school.

Truants without a valid excuse will be immediately returned to their schools or an agreed place of safety.

Education minister Ivan Lewis said there was no excuse for deliberately missing education.

"Truancy is a passport to a life blighted by wasted opportunities, unemployment and even crime," he added.

In the last round of national truancy sweeps, in May, the teams apprehended more than 14,000 young people.

Some 5,742 did not have a valid reason to be out of school.

Ten truants were caught in Kirklees, two of them with an adult.

In Calderdale, there were 57 truants, of whom 37 had an adult with them.