97.—(1) The following provisions and sections 98 and 99 apply to an adjudication which the Board has arranged under section 93(3) or 94(a) in relation to a dispute.

(2) The person appointed under section 93(3) or 94(a) to conduct the adjudication (“the adjudicator”) shall inquire fully into each relevant aspect of the dispute concerned and provide to, and receive from, each party such information as is appropriate.

(3) For that purpose, the adjudicator may require either party to furnish to him or her, within a specified period, such documents or other information as he or she considers appropriate.

(4) The adjudicator shall determine the dispute by either—

(a) reaching a decision himself or herself in the matter, or

(b) subject to section 98, declaring to the parties that he or she has adopted, as his or her determination of the dispute, a decision reached (through the adjudicator's assistance under subsection (5)) by the parties themselves in resolution of the matter,

and the reference in paragraph (a) to the adjudicator’s reaching a decision in the matter shall be deemed to include a reference to his or her deciding not to deal with the dispute in accordance with section 85.

(5) Where the adjudicator considers it would be of practical benefit, the adjudicator may provide assistance to the parties with a view to the parties themselves reaching a decision in resolution of the matter concerned; such assistance may include the adjudicator’s stating to the parties any provisional conclusion he or she has reached in relation to any of the issues concerned.

(6) Any statement of such a conclusion shall—

(a) not be made in relation to any issue of fact which is in dispute between the parties, unless the parties request the making of such a statement,

(b) not be made before every document submitted to the adjudicator by the parties and any initial oral submissions made by them have been considered by the adjudicator, and

(c) be accompanied by a statement, whether oral or in writing, that the conclusion is of a provisional nature and its making does not absolve the adjudicator of his or her duty to determine the dispute impartially and in accordance with the requirements of procedural fairness.

(7) The adjudicator may, in his or her discretion, permit another person to appear on a party's behalf at any hearing before the adjudicator.