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Advice to Bramwell Associates

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Enquiry

From
Bramwell Associates
Date advice given
4 August 2016
Enquiry type
Email

Is an NSIP DCO Application transferable between companies prior to submission or would a new request for an NSIP Application, even though it is on the same site, have to be submitted?

Advice given

The statutory consultation duties on the applicant at the pre application stage are transferable – we are concerned that they are undertaken by a person or organisation that proposes to make a viable NSIP application.

If there was any change to the “the applicant” during the pre-application stage the issue of project viability would be pertinent. The Secretary of State will want to make sure that the project can be implemented if it is granted development consent and that adequate funding is likely to be available, particularly where compulsory acquisition of land is needed.

In procedural terms, we would check this before formally accepting the application for examination – one of the checks is to the funding statement that is a required application document. If it was clear that the funding for the project was not adequately demonstrated then we would not accept it for examination. We would be asking questions about project viability before submission and providing advice to the new or existing applicant, potentially based on their draft DCO application documents if things had got that far.

Where a project has been directed by the Secretary of State to be a Business and Commercial NSIP, as a result of the scale and nature of the proposal, there may be other factors to consider.