Without prejudice to any other provision of this Act or any other enactment by virtue of which an inquiry or other hearing is authorised or required to be held, the appropriate Minister may cause an inquiry or other hearing to be held if it appears to him expedient to do so—
Without prejudice to any other provision of this Act or any other enactment by virtue of which an inquiry or other hearing is authorised or required to be held, the Welsh Ministers may cause an inquiry or other hearing to be held if it appears to them expedient to do so—
Subsections (2) to (5) of section 250 of the Local Government Act 1972 (which contain supplementary provisions with respect to local inquiries held in pursuance of that section) shall apply to inquiries or other hearings under this section or any other enactment—
as they apply to inquiries under that section, but taking the reference in subsection (4) of that section to a local authority as including a reference to the Agency or, as the case may be, the Natural Resources Body for Wales.
The provisions of subsections (2) to (8) of section 210 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (which relate to the holding of local inquiries) shall apply to inquiries or other hearings held under this section or any other enactment—
as they apply to inquiries held under that section.
In subsections (1) and (3) above, "enactment" includes an enactment comprised in, or in an instrument made under, an Act of the Scottish Parliament.
In this section, "relevant environmental functions" means—