School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013

Supplementary

29 Directions

(1) A local authority, or an officer of an authority, subject to a direction or instruction under this Chapter must comply with it.

(2) This includes a direction or an instruction to exercise a power or duty that is contingent upon the opinion of the local authority or an officer of the authority.

(3) A direction under this Chapter—

(a) must be in writing;

(b) may be varied or revoked by a later direction;

(c) is enforceable by mandatory order on application by, or on behalf of, the Welsh Ministers.

30 Duty to co-operate

(1) A local authority and the governing body of a maintained school must give the Welsh Ministers and any person specified in subsection (3) as much assistance in connection with the exercise of functions under or by virtue of this Chapter as they are reasonably able to give.

(2) The governing body of a maintained school and the local authority that maintains the school must also secure, so far as reasonably practicable, that persons who work at the school do the same.

(3) The specified persons are—

(a) any person authorised for the purposes of this section by the Welsh Ministers;

(b) any person acting under directions under this Chapter;

(c) any person assisting—

(i) the Welsh Ministers, or

(ii) a person mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b).

31 Powers of entry and inspection

(1) A person falling within subsection (2) has at all reasonable times—

(a) a right of entry to the premises of the local authority in question and any school maintained by it;

(b) a right to inspect, and take copies of, any records or other documents kept by the authority or any school maintained by it, and any other documents containing information relating to the authority or any such school, which the person considers relevant to the exercise by the person of functions under or by virtue of this Chapter.

(2) The following persons fall within this subsection—

(a) the person specified in a direction under section 24 or, where the direction specifies a class of persons, the person with whom the local authority enter into the contract or other arrangement required by the direction;

(b) the person specified in a direction under section 25;

(c) the Welsh Ministers in pursuance of a direction under section 26;

(d) the person nominated by direction under section 26.

(3) In exercising the right under subsection (1)(b) to inspect records or other documents, a person (“P”)—

(a) is entitled to have access to, and inspect and check the operation of, any computer and any associated apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with the records or other documents in question, and

(b) may require the following persons to provide any assistance P may reasonably require (including, among other things, the making of information available for inspection or copying in a legible form)—

(i) the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been so used;

(ii) any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer, apparatus or material.

(4) Any reference in this section to a person falling within subsection (2) includes a reference to any person assisting that person.

(5) In this section “document” and “records” each include information recorded in any form.