Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016

PART 10 MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL

183 Inquiries

(1) The Welsh Ministers may cause an inquiry to be held into any matter connected with the provision of care and support.

(2) Before an inquiry begins, the Welsh Ministers may direct that it is to be held in private.

(3) If no direction is given, the person holding the inquiry may decide to hold it, or any part of it, in private.

(4) Subsections (2) to (5) of section 250 of the Local Government Act 1972 (c.70) (powers in relation to local inquiries) apply in relation to an inquiry under this section as they apply in relation to a local inquiry under that section.

(5) The report of the person holding the inquiry must be published unless the Welsh Ministers think there are exceptional circumstances for not publishing it (or any part of it).

184 Service of documents etc.

(1) This section applies where a provision of this Act or of regulations or rules made under it requires (in whatever terms) the Welsh Ministers, SCW or the registrar—

(a) to notify a person of something, or

(b) to give a notice or other document to a person (including a copy of a document or a revised document).

(2) The notification or document may be given to the person in question—

(a) by being hand delivered to the person;

(b) by leaving it at the person’s proper address;

(c) by being sent by recorded delivery service—

(i) to the person’s proper address, or

(ii) where the person in question is a service provider, to the address of a place at or from which the provider provides a regulated service;

(d) if subsection (3) applies, by sending it electronically to an address provided for that purpose.

(3) This subsection applies if the person to whom the notification or document is to be given has agreed to receive it electronically.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2)(a), notification or a document given to a body corporate may be hand delivered by being given to the secretary or clerk of that body.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (2)(b), where a notification or document is left at a person’s proper address it is to be treated as having been given at the time at which it was left at that address.

(6) In subsection (2)(c), “recorded delivery service” means—

(a) a registered items service as defined in section 32(4) of the Postal Services Act 2011 (c.5), or

(b) any other postal service which provides for delivery to be recorded.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (2), a person’s proper address is—

(a) in the case of a body corporate, the address of the registered or principal office of the body;

(b) in the case of a partnership, the address of the principal office of the partnership;

(c) in the case of a local authority, the address of the office of the authority’s director of social services;

(d) in any other case, the person’s last known address.

(8) Where a notification or document is given as mentioned in subsection (2)(c) or (d) it is to be taken to have been received 48 hours after it is sent unless the contrary is shown.

(9) See section 2 for the meaning of “regulated service”, section 3 for the meaning of “service provider” and section 81 for the meaning of “registrar”.