Education Act 1996

3 (1) If the schools providing relevant education which are available for the area are not sufficient, the funding authority shall, for the purpose of securing the availability of sufficient schools providing such education for the area, exercise their powers to make proposals for the establishment, alteration and discontinuance of schools.

(2) In performing that duty, the funding authority shall have regard to the need for securing that special educational provision is made for pupils who have special educational needs.

(3) The schools available for any area shall not be treated as sufficient for the purposes of this paragraph unless they are sufficient for the purposes of section 14(1) (duty of local education authority to secure availability of schools).

(4) Nothing in this paragraph requires a funding authority to take any action where to do so would not be an effective use of their resources.

(5) In this paragraph “powers to make proposals for the establishment, alteration and discontinuance of schools” means all or any of the powers to publish proposals under sections 211, 260 or 268 or give notice of proposals under section 339.