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Advice to Bill Hoodless

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Enquiry

From
Bill Hoodless
Date advice given
13 November 2013
Enquiry type
Email

Could you advise please concerning the statutory consultees for this national infrastructure scheme?

I am aware that there is Schedule One in S.I. 2009/2264 at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/2264/pdfs/uksi_20092264_en.pdf

However, that is very general including many consultees that would have no interest in this particular plan.

Thus it occurred to me you may already have a publicly available list of statutory consultees for the Navitus proposal and if so, I should be grateful to receive a copy.

Advice given

You are correct in stating that the persons prescribed for the purposes of an applicant's duty to consult are those listed in column 1 of the table in Schedule 1 of the Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009.

The Planning Inspectorate uses specialised software to generate a list of prescribed persons based on a shape file (mapping the Order limits) provided by an applicant. This is usually done twice; first under Regulation 9 of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009 and again in immediate advance of the submission of an application. The list generated by the Inspectorate under Regulation 9 of the above regulations for the proposed Navitus Bay Wind Park is available to view publicly as an appendix (Appendix 1) to the Inspectorate's Scoping Report, here: http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/wp-content/ipc/uploads/projects/EN010024/1.%20Pre-Submission/EIA/Scoping/Scoping%20Opinion/111101_EN010024_853170_Scoping%20Opinion.pdf

While lists generated under Regulation 9 of the above regulations are shared with applicants, the Inspectorate emphasises that applicants should not rely on their contents to inform an applicant's duty to consult under the Planning Act 2008 (as amended). It is for an applicant to identify the required bodies subject to its own investigation and its own legal advice.

The purpose of the list generated by the Inspectorate before submission of an application is to identify any jurisdictional or boundary changes associated with the prescribed bodies in advance of a potential Examination. In practice this may increase or decrease the amount of prescribed bodies. This list will inform to whom an appointed Examining Authority (ExA) will send its letter under Rule 6 of the Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2009; which amongst other things invites all prescribed bodies to the Preliminary Meeting. Following the Preliminary meeting, the ExA will issue a second letter under Rule 8 of the above rules, to all interested parties and all prescribed bodies. Appended to this letter will be a timetable for the Examination which will include a deadline by which prescribed bodies must respond to the Inspectorate to confirm their status as an 'interested party'. Those bodies which do not reply will not be afforded interested party status, and will not be sent correspondence or consulted with further in the Examination.