§ Mr. RichardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what measures he has in place to ensure that local education authority service, strategy and regulation budgets are not transferred to local education authority-maintained schools in the form of in-year payments. [3079]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him on 4 November,Official Report, column 353. Were a local education authority to delegate this money to any of its schools, it would be identified in the audit of the financial statements that LEAs are required to prepare under section 122 of the Education Act 1996. Where it could be demonstrated that this had implications for the funding of grant-maintained schools, steps would be taken to ensure that they were not financially disadvantaged.