Skip to main content
Find a National Infrastructure Project

Beta This is a beta service - your feedback will help us to improve it

Advice to Tom Boyd

Back to list

Enquiry

From
Tom Boyd
Date advice given
22 February 2012
Enquiry type
Email

Can you please advise me what are the legal obligations imposed upon an applicant, with regard to carrying out public consultations, the action they need to take in response to the consultations and the method of reporting these consultations to the IPC. In particular, where they have not acted on public opinion.

Advice given

The Infrastructure Planning process is intended to be heavily frontloaded. As you may be aware, there are obligations upon applicants to undertake consultation, both with certain prescribed bodies and with the community, before submitting an application; in particular s42, s47 and s48 within Chapter 2 of Part 5 of the Planning Act 2008. S49 of the Act states that the applicant must have regard to the responses from consultation.

The IPC will not accept an application for examination unless we are satisfied that the applicant has conducted the required consultation and has had regard to any responses received; either by acting on them or by explaining why they have not. We ask Local Authorities for their views before making that decision.

The Act states that the way in which the applicant demonstrates they have had regard to any responses received is through the preparation of a Consultation Report (s37(3)(c) and s55). Each application must be accompanied by a Consultation Report, which sets out how the applicant has undertaken consultation, the results of that consultation, and how the applicant has had regard to responses.

I note that you are particularly interested in the Hinkley Point application; you can see the applicant?s Consultation Report on our website via the ?Application Documents? tab on the Hinkley point project page here: http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/projects/south-west/hinkley-point-c-new-nuclear-power-station/.

This is the applicant?s document. The Commissioners appointed to decide whether the Hinkley Point C application should proceed to examination, in reviewing all the relevant information, have decided to accept the application for examination. They would not have done so were they not satisfied that the applicant had met the minimum legal requirements for consultation. Their decision and the checklist that informed it is also on our website, in the "Procedural Decisions" tab on the Hinkley Point project page.

The IPC has published an advice note, ?Advice note 8.2: How to have your say on a major infrastructure proposal ? the developer?s consultation? which explores this issue in more detail. You may also wish to read ?Advice note 8.1: How the process works ? opportunities to be involved.? The government has published guidance called ?Planning Act: Guidance on pre-application consultation,? which is more technical in nature, and the IPC?s ?Advice note 14: Compiling the consultation report?, which is targeted at applicants, may also be of interest to you. Part 5 of the Planning Act 2008 and regulations made under it set out the legal obligations. All these documents can be found in the Legislation and Advice section of our website here: http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/legislation-and-advice/