# The Gas (Underground Storage) (Inquiries Procedure) Rules 1966, Article 10: Procedure after Inquiry


(1) The appointed person shall after the close of the inquiry make a report in writing to the Minister which shall include the appointed person's findings of fact and his recommendations, if any, or his reason for not making any recommendations.
(2) Where the Minister—
(a) differs from the appointed person on a finding of fact, or
(b) after the close of the inquiry takes into consideration any new evidence (including expert opinion on a matter of fact) or any new issue of fact (not being a matter of government policy) which was not raised at the inquiry,
and by reason thereof is disposed to disagree with a recommendation made by the appointed person, he shall not come to a decision which is at variance with any such recommendation without first notifying the applicants and any statutory objector who appeared at the inquiry of his disagreement and the reasons for it and affording them an opportunity of making representations in writing within 21 days or (if the Minister has taken into consideration any new evidence or any new issue of fact, not being a matter of government policy) of asking within 21 days for the re-opening of the inquiry.
(3) The Minister may in any case if he thinks fit cause the inquiry to be re-opened, and shall cause it to be re-opened if asked to do so in accordance with the last foregoing paragraph; and, if the inquiry is re-opened, paragraphs (2) and (3) of rule 4 shall apply as they applied to the original inquiry, with the substitution in paragraph (2) of “28” for “42”.
(4) In this rule “new evidence” includes any fact, information, or statement of opinion on a matter of fact which was taken into consideration by the Minister for the purposes of his decision upon the proposals submitted to him by the applicants in accordance with paragraph 3 of Schedule 2 to the Act and which was not disclosed at the inquiry in such a way as to give any person appearing at the inquiry an opportunity of dealing with it by way of cross-examination or otherwise.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1966/1375/article/10 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/gas-underground-storage-inquiries-procedure-rules-1966/article-10
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.