40Public inquiries by Board of Education
(1)The Board of Education may hold a public inquiry for the purpose of the exercise of any of their powers or the performance of any of their duties under the Education Acts.
(2)The following provisions shall (except as otherwise provided by the Education Acts) apply to any public inquiry held by the Board of Education :—
(a)The Board shall appoint a person or persons to hold the inquiry:
(b)The person or persons so appointed shall hold a sitting or sittings in some convenient place in the neighbourhood to which the subject of the inquiry relates, and thereat shall hear, receive, and examine any evidence and information offered, and hear and inquire into , the objections or representations made respecting the subject matter of the inquiry, with power from time to time to adjourn any sitting :
(c)Notice shall be published in such manner as the Board direct of every such sitting, except an adjourned sitting, seven days at least ' before the holding thereof:
(d)The person or persons so appointed shall make a report in writing to the Board setting forth the result of the inquiry and the objections and representations, if any, made thereat, and any opinion or recommendations submitted by him or them to the Board :
(e)The Board shall furnish a copy of the report to any local education authority concerned with the subject matter of the inquiry, and on payment of such fee as maybe fixed by the Board, to any person interested :
(f)The Board may, where it appears to them reasonable that such an order should be made, order the payment of the whole or any part of the costs of the inquiry either by any local education authority to whose administration the inquiry appears to the Board to be incidental, or by the applicant for the inquiry, and may require the applicant for an inquiry to give security for the costs thereof:
(g)Any order so made shall certify the amount to be paid by the local education authority or the applicant, and any amount so certified shall, without prejudice to the recovery thereof as a debt due to the Crown, be recoverable by the Board summarily as a civil debt from the authority or the applicant as the case may be.