27.—(1) The county council, each of the Cumberland councils and each of the Westmorland and Furness councils must—
(a)consult and co-operate with one another and with the shadow authorities in order to secure the economic, effective, efficient and timely transfer of the county council’s and those councils’ functions, property, rights and liabilities; and
(b)generally, exercise their functions so as to further the purposes of this Order.
(2) A relevant authority must provide such information relating to its functions as any other relevant authority may reasonably request for the purpose of giving effect to this Order.
(3) A relevant authority must, on request by a person authorised by another relevant authority in that behalf, at all reasonable times allow that person—
(a)to inspect any record belonging to or under the control of the authority providing the information and relating to the authority or its functions; and
(b)to take, or be supplied with, a copy of any such record or part of it.
(4) A relevant authority to whom a request is made under paragraph (3) may, before complying with the request, require the person making the request to produce evidence of the authorisation given by the other relevant authority.
(5) The rights conferred by paragraph (3) include the right to require any record which is not in legible form to be made available in legible form so that the authorised person may inspect or copy it or be supplied with copies.
(6) The information referred to in paragraph (2) shall, in particular, include any information necessary for the exercise during the shadow period of any of the functions of a shadow authority.
(7) In this article “relevant authority” means—
(a)in the case of Cumberland—
(i)the county council;
(ii)the Cumberland councils;
(iii)the shadow authority for Cumberland;
(b)in the case of Westmorland and Furness—
(i)the county council;
(ii)the Westmorland and Furness councils;
(iii)the shadow authority for Westmorland and Furness.