Citation, commencement, extent and revocation

1.-(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Education (School Sessions and Charges and Remissions Policies) (Information) (England) Regulations 1999 and shall come into force on 1st September 1999.

(2) These Regulations extend to England only.

(3) The Education (School Hours and Policies) (Information) Regulations 1989(2) shall be revoked in relation to England.

Interpretation

2.-(1) In these Regulations-�

"the 1996 Act" means the Education Act 1996;

"the 1998 Act" means the School Standards and Framework Act 1998;

"authority" means a local education authority;

"governors' report" means the report which the governing body of a maintained school are required to prepare once in every school year under section 42 of the 1998 Act;

"maintained school" has the meaning given to it by section 20(7) of the 1998 Act;

"school day" has the meaning given to it by section 579(1) of the 1996 Act;

"school prospectus" means the document described in regulation 11 of the Education (School Information) (England) Regulations 1998(3); and

"school year" has the meaning given to it by section 579(1) of the 1996 Act.

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to a numbered regulation is a reference to the regulation bearing that number in these Regulations and any reference in a regulation to a numbered paragraph is to the paragraph of that regulation bearing that number.

Information to be made available by head teachers

3.-(1) The head teacher of every maintained school shall make available to parents of pupils at the school and other persons the information specified in paragraph (2) in the manner specified in paragraph (3).

(2) The information referred to in paragraph (1) is information consisting of-�

(a)the times at which each school session begins and ends on a school day, and

(b)particulars of the charging and remissions policies determined by the governing body of the school under section 457 of the 1996 Act.

(3) Copies of the information shall be provided at the school for inspection by parents and other persons at all reasonable times on a school day and for distribution without charge to parents on request.

Information to be made available by authorities

4.-(1) Every authority shall make available information consisting of particulars of charging and remissions policies determined by the authority under section 457 of the 1996 Act to the persons and in the manner specified in paragraph (2).

(2) Copies of the particulars shall be made available-�

(a)for the distribution without charge to parents on request, and for reference by parents and other persons-�

(i)at the offices of the authority, and

(ii)at every school maintained by the authority, and

(b)for reference by parents and other persons at the public libraries in the area of that authority.

Changes in information to which regulation 3(2)(b) applies

5.-(1) This regulation applies to any significant change to the information to which regulation 3(2)(b) applies which takes place after publication of the school prospectus in any school year but before completion of the preparation of the governors' report in that year.

(2) The governing body shall make available particulars of any such change at the same time, in the same manner, and to the same extent that they are required by regulations in force from time to time under section 42 of the 1998 Act to make copies of the governors' report available.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations revoke and replace the Education (School Hours and Policies) (Information) Regulations 1989 ("the 1989 Regulations") in relation to England.

Apart from updating statutory references and omitting amendments to earlier (revoked) Regulations, there are no changes of substance from the 1989 Regulations.

As under the 1989 Regulations, these Regulations impose obligations on head teachers, school governing bodies and local education authorities to make information available about charging and remissions policies.

The head teacher is required to make available to parents and others details of the school governing body's charging and remissions policies determined under section 457 of the Education Act 1996 and details of the times at which each school session begins and ends. This information is to be available for inspection at the school and parents are entitled to a free copy of it (regulation 3).

Local education authorities are required to make available details of their charging and remissions policies at specified locations (regulation 4).

If any change takes place in the governors' charging and remissions policies after the school prospectus has been published but before the governors' report has been completed, they are required to provide details of the change with their report (regulation 5).