The Education (Budget Statements) (England)Regulations 2002

Citation, commencement and application

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Budget Statements) (England) Regulations 2002 and shall come into force on 29th March 2002.

(2) These Regulations shall apply only in relation to England and only in relation to budget statements prepared for the financial year beginning on 1st April 2002.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the 1996 Act” means the Education Act 1996(1);

“the 1998 Act” means the School Standards and Framework Act 1998;

“the 2002 Regulations” means the Financing of Maintained Schools (England) Regulations 2002(2);

“allocation formula” means the authority’s formula under regulation 10 of the 2002 Regulations used to determine schools' budget shares;

“authority” means a local education authority;

“Class Size grant” means grant paid in accordance with section 3 of the 1998 Act;

“budget statement” means the statement referred to in section 52(1) of the 1998 Act;

“DfES number” means the reference number allocated to a school by the Department for Education and Skills;

“factor” means one of the factors or criteria taken into account in the allocation formula;

“ISB” means an authority’s individual schools budget within the meaning of section 46(2) of the 1998 Act;

“LEA number” means the reference number allocated to an authority by the Department for Education and Skills;

“LSB” means an authority’s local schools budget within the meaning of section 46(1) of the 1998 Act;

“maintained school” means a community, foundation or voluntary school or a community or foundation special school;

“relevant” in relation to “age”, “age group” and “year group” means an age, age group or year group separately treated in the allocation formula for the purposes of determining that part of each school’s budget share which is to be determined by reference to numbers of registered pupils;

“pupil-led” funding as defined in Part III of the 2002 Regulations;

“school” means a maintained school;

“School Standards Grant” means the grant known as School Standards Grant paid in accordance with section 88B of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, which in the case of primary, secondary and special schools is paid on condition that it is appropriated to the ISB;

“special educational needs” and “special educational provision” have the meanings given to those expressions by section 312 of the 1996 Act;

“Standards Fund grant” means grant paid under section 484 of the 1996 Act together with the authority’s expenditure not offset by that grant but taken into account in determining the amount of that grant;

“statement” in relation to a pupil with special educational needs means a statement made under section 324 of the 1996 Act; and

“version number” means a number which distinguishes a particular form submitted by the authority from earlier versions of that form prepared by them.

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,—

(a) references to primary of secondary schools do not include special schools; and

(b) references to the number or numbers of registered pupils at one or more schools are references to the number or numbers of such pupils required under the allocation formula to be used for the initial determination of that school’s budget share or those schools' budget shares for the year but ignoring any weighting in accordance with paragraph (5) or any adjustment under paragraph (6) of regulation 11 of the 2002 Regulations.

(3) The following table shows provisions of the 1996 Act or the 1998 Act defining or otherwise explaining expressions used in these Regulations—

financial year	section 579(1) of the 1996 Act
scheme	section 48(1) of the 1998 Act
school’s budget share	section 47(1) of the 1998 Act.

(4) Any reference in these Regulations to a numbered regulation or Schedule is a reference to the regulation or Schedule in these Regulations so numbered.

Prescribed form of, and information to be contained in, budget statements

3.—(1) A budget statement shall be prepared in four parts, and shall contain the information prescribed for the purposes of section 52(1) of the 1998 Act, as follows—

(a) Part 1 shall be in the form prescribed in Schedule 1 and shall contain the information, relating to the authority’s planned expenditure for the financial year to which the budget statement relates, specified in the notes to Part 1 in Schedule 1;

(b) Part 2 shall be in the form prescribed in Schedule 2 and shall contain the information, with respect to the authority’s planned expenditure for each school for the financial year to which the budget statement relates, specified in the notes to Part 2 in Schedule 2;

(c) Part 3 shall be in the form prescribed in Schedule 3 and shall contain the information with respect to the authority’s allocation formula specified in the notes to Part 3 in Schedule 3; and

(d) Part 4 shall contain the information with respect to the budget share of each school for the financial year to which the budget statement relates specified in Schedule 4.

(2) The following information must appear at the top of each of Parts 1 to 4 of a budget statement—

(a) the financial year to which the budget statement relates;

(b) the authority’s name;

(c) the authority’s LEA number;

(d) E-mail address;

(e) the name of a person who can deal with queries in relation to the completed form;

(f) that person’s telephone number;

(g) the version number; and

(h) the date that the form was completed.

(3) Where a person is carrying out functions on behalf of an authority then the authority shall include information in Parts 1 to 4 of the budget statement as if expenditure by that person in carrying out those functions were expenditure by the authority.

Prescribed manner and time of publication of budget statements

4.  For the purposes of section 52(3)(b) of the 1998 Act, every budget statement shall be published by—

(a) supplying copies to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills in accordance with regulation 5; and

(b) making a copy available for reference by parents and other persons at all reasonable times and without charge at each education office of the authority.

5.—(1) Three copies of Parts 1 to 3 and two copies of Part 4 of the budget statement shall be supplied to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills in paper form and one copy in the form of machine readable data by E-mail or on a disk provided for that purpose by the Secretary of State.

(2) The font size used must be not less than 7pt and there must be no shading nor colouring of cells.

(3) Any computer language or software used to supply tables must be one which the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has notified to the authority.

6.—(1) A budget statement shall be published before the beginning of the financial year to which it relates.

(2) A budget statement may not be revised during the financial year to which it relates other than to correct errors in the statement as previously published.

(3) A revised budget statement shall be subject to regulations 3, 4, 5, 6(2) and 7.

7.  The authority shall furnish the governing body and head teacher of each school maintained by them with a copy of Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the budget statement and with a copy of that part of Part 4 of the budget statement which relates to the school in question, save that if the governing body or the head teacher so request the authority shall furnish them with a complete copy of Part 4 of the budget statement.

Stephen Timms

Minister of State,

Department for Education and Skills

7th March 2002