26 Recurrent grant, capital grants and special purpose grants.S
(1)The payments the Secretary of State is required to make in pursuance of his duty to maintain a self-governing school are annual grants to the board of management of the school in respect of expenditure, for the purposes of the board’s functions under section 7(1) of this Act, incurred or to be incurred by the board in the financial year to which any such grant (to be known as “recurrent grant”) relates.
(2)The amount of the recurrent grant payable in respect of any such school for any financial year shall, subject to section 27 of this Act, be such as may be determined (and from time to time revised) in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State under this section (referred to in this Part of this Act as “grant regulations”); and the education authority which maintained the school before the incorporation date shall provide the Secretary of State with such information as he may require of them, for the purposes of his making or applying those regulations, concerning their financial management of the school and of other schools maintained by them and any decisions taken by them regarding the present or prospective such management of those other schools.
(3)Grant regulations may also provide for the payment to a board of management—
(a)of grants (to be known as “capital grants”) in respect of expenditure of a capital nature;
(b)of grants (to be known as “special purpose grants”) in respect of expenditure not of a capital nature, being expenditure which the Secretary of State considers should not be met from recurrent grant,
incurred or to be incurred by them of any class or description specified in the regulations.
(4)The descriptions of expenditure which are to be regarded for the purposes of subsection (3)(a) above as expenditure of a capital nature shall be such as may be determined by or in accordance with the regulations.
(5)The times at which, and the manner in which, payments are made in respect of recurrent grant, capital grants and special purpose grants shall be such as may be determined in accordance with the regulations.
(6)For the purposes of subsection (5) above, the regulations—
(a)may provide that payments in respect of recurrent grant for any school in respect of any financial year may be made, before any amount has been determined in accordance with the regulations as the amount of such grant payable for that year in respect of that school, by reference to an estimate of the amount which will be so payable made by the Secretary of State;
(b)may make provision as regards recovery from boards of management of recurrent grant, capital grants and special purpose grants overpaid.
(7)A board of management to whom any payments in respect of recurrent grant or capital or special purpose grants are made shall comply with such requirements as the Secretary of State may from time to time impose, being requirements—
(a)specified in grant regulations as requirements which may be imposed by the Secretary of State on boards to whom such payments are made; or
(b)determined in accordance with such regulations by the Secretary of State.
(8)Requirements imposed under subsection (7) above—
(a)may be imposed on, or at any time after, the making of any payment by reference to which they are imposed; and
(b)may at any time be waived or, subject to subsection (9) below, varied by the Secretary of State.
(9)The power of the Secretary of State to vary such a requirement—
(a)does not apply to a requirement imposed under subsection (7)(a) above; and
(b)is subject, in the case of a requirement imposed under subsection (7)(b) above, to the provisions of the regulations with respect to the determination of the requirements that may be so imposed in the case of payments in respect of the grants in question.
(10)The requirements which may be specified in or authorised by grant regulations as requirements which may be imposed on boards to whom payments are made, include in particular requirements with respect to the repayment, in whole or in part, of payments made if any other requirement imposed under subsection (7) above by reference to payments (whether imposed before, at or after the time when the payments subject to the repayment are made) is not complied with.
(11)Subject to—
(a)any requirements imposed by the Secretary of State under subsection (7) above; and
(b)any requirements with respect to the application of grant contained in the articles of management of the school,
it shall be the duty of a board of management to apply any payments made to them in respect of recurrent grant solely for the purposes mentioned in subsection (1) above.