Regulations under section 1 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 provide that an infant class may not contain more than 30 pupils at any time while an ordinary teaching session is conducted by a single qualified teacher (or, where the session is conducted by more than one qualified teacher, more than 30 pupils for every teacher). These Regulations, which are made under section 3 of that Act, authorise the Secretary of State to pay grants to a local education authority in connection with expenditure incurred by them (and approved by the Secretary of State) for the purpose of ensuring that that limit on the size of infant classes is complied with at schools maintained by that authority (regulation 3).

The Secretary of State may not pay grant to an authority whose plan for reducing infant class sizes has not been approved by him under section 2 of the 1996 Act (regulation 4). The Secretary of State is required to take that plan into account when deciding whether to pay any grant to an authority and, if so, how much (regulation 5).

The rate of grant may be of any amount (determined by the Secretary of State) up to 100 per cent. of the approved expenditure to which it relates; and grant is payable at such times and in such instalments as he may determine (regulations 6 and 7).

The payment of grant may be made dependent upon such conditions as may be specified by the Secretary of State, and he may also require the local education authority to whom it is paid to comply with certain requirements (regulations 8 and 9).