The Education (Budget Statements) (Wales) Regulations 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which are made under section 52 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, apply to local education authorities (LEAs) in Wales. The Regulations specify the information about LEAs expenditure on education which must be contained in the statement of planned expenditure “budget statement” which each LEA are required to prepare before the beginning of each financial year under subsection (1) of section 52. The Regulations replace the Education (Budget Statements) (Wales) Regulations 1999 which are revoked.

Under regulation 4 every budget statement must be prepared in three parts as follows—

(a) Part 1, in the form and containing particulars of planned expenditure for individual schools specified in Schedule 1;

(b) Part 2, in the form and containing the information with respect to the methodology for determining schools' budget shares specified in Schedule 2; and

(c) Part 3, containing the information with respect to the budget share of each of the authority’s schools specified in Schedule 3.

Part 1 and 2 must be completed in English and Welsh. Part 3 can be completed in either or both languages.

The regulations also provide for the manner and time of publication of budget statements — see regulations 5—8.

The most significant change from the previous Regulations is that there is no longer a requirement to submit LEA level information (Schedule 1 of the 1999 Regulations), since this will be obtained on revised local government revenue account budget (RA) forms.

Part 1 of the budget statement (school-level information) clarifies the treatment of schools due to open or close during the financial year. Part 2 (funding factors) has been revised to make it clearer to follow and complete. Part 3 (application of factors to schools) now prescribes sub-totals, to ensure consistency and to make the information more useful to schools.