For the purposes of this Part of this Act the authority responsible for the grant, renewal, variation, suspension and revocation of licences and certificates shall be a body of Ministers consisting of all the Ministers specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 1(1) of this Act.

Any function conferred on the licensing authority by or under this Act may be performed by any one of those Ministers acting alone or by any two or more of them acting jointly.

In accordance with the preceding provisions of this section, in this Act “the licensing authority” means any one or more of those Ministers, and, in the case of anything falling to be done by the licensing authority, means any one or more of those Ministers acting as mentioned in subsection (2) of this section.