Schools in Brighton and Hove have the lowest rate of truancy in the country, shows a new survey.

Smart Technologies, which manufactures interactive whiteboards for schools, polled 1,000 11 to 16-year-olds across the UK to find out if they had ever skipped class.

Eleven per cent of pupils from Brighton and Hove admitted playing truant, while the figure was 32 per cent in Glasgow, the worst city for truancy.

In Belfast, 29 per cent admitting missing lessons.

Norwich and Plymouth followed with 27 per cent.

A quarter of pupils played truant in London and Manchester, while the best-performing cities behind Brighton and Hove were Liverpool and Edinburgh with 13 per cent.

The national average is 23 per cent in state schools and 17 per cent in independent schools.

Brighton and Hove City Council schools spokeswoman Pat Hawkes said: "This is a big pat on the back for our young people and they thoroughly deserve it.

"It shows that our firm but fair approach to truancy is working and it also reflects well on the excellent anti-bullying work going on in so many of our schools.

"It's also a recognition of the hard work our education welfare officers and school liaison officers put in to help local children and families."

The poll, in the UK's largest cities, questioned a representative sample of pupils and showed that most pupils played truant because they did not like a particular subject or to hang out with friends.

However, one in ten truants missed school because they were being bullied, six per cent said they bunked off because of a hangover and more than a third of pupils said they took time out of class without permission to go on a family holiday.

Although Brighton and Hove pupils attend more regularly than elsewhere in the country and there have been steady improvements in the city's attendance figures, one in five pupils still play truant.

The Argus reported in September that out of 11,735 pupils in the city's secondary schools, 2,675 skipped classes without permission for at least one half day in 2004/05.

David Hawker, director of children, families and schools, said: "We are pleased with the progress made.

"Where there are instances of persistent non-attendance, however, we will not hesitate to take legal action.

"Improving attendance is one of our key targets and we will be continuing with our work to ensure that pupils and students attend school and get the best from their education."

Parents can be fined up to £100 if their children repeatedly miss school or can be prosecuted and sentenced to up to three months in prison, fined up to £2,500 for each offence or given a community punishment order.