Education Act 1996

577 Minor authorities

(1) For the purposes of this Act a school maintained by a local education authority serves an area for which there is a minor authority if the area served by the school is—

(a) a parish or community;

(b) an area in England which is not within a parish and is not situated in—

(i) a county for which there is no council, or

(ii) a county in which there are no district councils; or

(c) an area comprising two or more areas each of which falls within paragraph (a) or (b).

(2) Where the area served by the school is a parish, the minor authority in relation to the school is—

(a) the parish council (if there is one), or

(b) the parish meeting (if there is no parish council).

(3) Where the area served by the school is a community, the minor authority in relation to the school is the community council.

(4) Where the area served by the school is an area falling within subsection (1)(b), the minor authority in relation to the school is the district council for the area.

(5) Where the area served by the school is an area falling within subsection (1)(c), the relevant authorities acting jointly are the minor authority in relation to the school.

(6) In subsection (5) “the relevant authorities” means the bodies which, if the two or more constituent areas referred to in subsection (1)(c) were taken separately, would be the minor authorities for those areas.

(7) References in this section to the area served by a school are references to the area appearing to the local education authority to be served by the school.