Education Act 1996

Provision by a scheme for financial delegation

107 The delegation requirement

(1) A scheme shall include provision for requiring, in the case of each school required to be covered by the scheme in any financial year, the delegation by the local education authority to the governing body of the management of the school’s budget share for that year.

(2) Any provision included in a scheme by virtue of subsection (1) is referred to in this Part as the “delegation requirement” under the scheme.

108 Optional delegation

A scheme may provide for the management of a school’s budget share for any financial year to be delegated by the local education authority to the governing body of the school in a case where the delegation requirement under the scheme does not apply to the school in respect of that year.

109 Conditions as to delegation

(1) Any delegation under a scheme of the management of a school’s budget share shall be subject to such conditions as may be imposed by or under the scheme.

(2) Conditions so imposed may, in particular, relate to—

(a) the arrangements to be made for management of the expenditure of any sum made available to a school’s governing body in accordance with the scheme (and in particular for authorising expenditure, or transactions involving commitments to expenditure, to be met from any such sum);

(b) the keeping and audit of accounts and records with respect to such expenditure, and the keeping of records with respect to such transactions;

(c) the provision to the local education authority by the governing body of copies of accounts and records required to be kept by any condition imposed under paragraph (b); and

(d) the provision to the local education authority by the governing body of such other documents and information relating to the application of any sum falling within paragraph (a) as the authority may from time to time require.

(3) In subsection (1) “delegation” means delegation under any provision made by virtue of section 107 or 108.

110 Initial implementation of the delegation requirement

(1) If a school comes within a scheme in a financial year falling within the scheme’s initial period, the delegation requirement under the scheme shall not apply to the school until a date specified in the scheme.

(2) For the purposes of this section a scheme’s “initial period” (subject to any order made under subsection (4)) is the period of three years beginning with the date of the coming into force of the scheme.

(3) Different dates may be specified under subsection (1) in relation to different schools or categories of school and in relation to schools coming within the scheme in different financial years or at different times within the same financial year; but—

(a) each date specified must coincide with the beginning of a financial year, and

(b) no date may be specified which falls after the beginning of the financial year next following the end of the scheme’s initial period.

(4) The Secretary of State may by order—

(a) substitute a date specified in the order for any date specified in a scheme under subsection (1) (including one specified by virtue of a previous order under this subsection), and

(b) extend any scheme’s initial period until a date specified in the order.

(5) For the purposes of this section a school—

(a) comes within a scheme in any financial year if that financial year is the first financial year in which the school is required to be covered by the scheme, and

(b) comes within the scheme—

(i) at the beginning of that year, if it is then a school required to be so covered, and

(ii) otherwise at the time falling within that year when it first becomes such a school.