Deciding an appeal on written evidence only
7.—(1) Where neither the appellant nor the local authority have requested the Secretary of State to afford to each of them an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed by the Secretary of State, or where any such request has been withdrawn, the Secretary of State may decide the appeal on the basis of the documents and written representations submitted to him, but before so deciding—
(a)the Secretary of State may by notice in writing require any one or more of the following, that is to say—
(i)the appellant,
(ii)the local authority,
(iii)any interested person,
to furnish such further documents or information (being documents or information in the possession or control of the person or body in question) as the Secretary of State may specify, and
(b)the Secretary of State shall in all cases (whether he requires further documents or information to be furnished as aforesaid or not) give the appellant an opportunity to comment on any representations made by the local authority under regulation 5(1).
(2) In its application to an appeal which has been decided by the Secretary of State on the basis of documents and written representations, regulation 15 shall have effect as if in paragraph (1) for the words “the interested persons who appeared at the hearing” there were substituted the words “any interested person named in the notice of appeal as a person upon whom the appellant was serving a copy of that notice” and all the words after “the local authority” where omitted, and as if paragraphs (2) and (3) were omitted.