Conditions for payment of grant
6.—(1) No payment of grant shall be made except in response to an application in writing from an education authority to the National Assembly, authenticated by the officer of the authority responsible for the administration of their financial affairs or that person’s deputy.
(2) Applications for the payment of grant shall relate to expenditure over one or more of the periods specified in paragraph (3) and shall specify the approved expenditure in respect of which grant is applied for which has been or which it is estimated will be incurred by the education authority during each such period.
(3) The periods referred to in paragraph (2) are –
(a)1st April to 31st July;
(b)1st August to 31st December;
(c)1st January to 31st March.
(4) Where an application relating to approved expenditure which has been or which it is estimated will be incurred during the period 1st January to 31st March in any year is submitted under paragraph (1), such payment as the National Assembly may determine, but not exceeding, save where it determines otherwise, three-quarters of the grant applied for in respect of that expenditure may be made forthwith, but no further payment of grant shall be made in respect of that expenditure until a statement has been submitted in accordance with paragraph (5)(a).
(5) Each education authority which has received or seeks to receive a payment of grant in respect of expenditure incurred during any financial year shall, before 31 July in the following financial year or as soon as practicable after that date –
(a)submit to the National Assembly a statement which shall specify the approved expenditure in respect of which grant has been or is being applied for which has been incurred by the education authority during that year; and
(b)secure the submission to the National Assembly of a certificate signed by the auditor appointed by the Audit Commission for Local Authorities and the National Health Service in England and Wales to audit the accounts of the authority or any auditor qualified for such appointment by virtue of section 3(5), (6) and (7) of the Audit Commission Act 1998(1) certifying that in his or her opinion the particulars stated in the statement submitted by the authority pursuant to this paragraph are fairly stated and that the expenditure incurred was approved for the purposes of section 484 of the 1996 Act(2).
(6) No payment of grant shall be made in respect of expenditure incurred by an education authority in the period 1st August to 31st December in any year or any subsequent period if grant was paid to the authority in respect of expenditure in the previous financial year but the National Assembly has not yet received the auditor’s certificate referred to in paragraph (5)(b) for that year.
(7) Any under-payment or over-payment of grant which remains outstanding following receipt of the auditor’s certificate referred to in paragraph (5)(b) shall, without prejudice to the recovery of any over-payment from any subsequent payment of grant to the education authority, be adjusted by payment between the authority and the National Assembly.
Section 484 was amended by section 7(10) of and paragraph 125 of Schedule 30 to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.