Advice to Andrew Guyton
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- From
- Andrew Guyton
- Date advice given
- 25 September 2013
- Enquiry type
Please find attached Sec42 list for Dogger Bank Teesside A&B forthcoming statutory consultation ? any comments from PINS would be greatly appreciated.
In preparing this list, the Stakeholder team has taken into consideration Advice Note 3. I appreciate that the scope for PINS to sign off such a list was discussed previously at Creyke Beck (emails early February) ? but notwithstanding this ? I recall that providing PINS the opportunity to comment on the list was very much appreciated.
Advice given
Thank you for providing us with your list of s42 consultees in respect of the Dogger Bank Teesside A & B project. Apologies for the slight delay in responding to you. We have made some detailed comments below in regard to specific parties however there is a general point that should be made first in regard to your interpretation of the Infrastructure Planning (Prescribed Consultees and Interested Parties) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 ('Amendment Regulations').
The Amendment Regulations specify that the amendments made to Schedule 1 of the Infrastructure Planning (Applications:Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 ('APFP Regulations') do not apply where any of the following have taken place before 6 April 2013:
-a regulation 6 notification has been given to the Secretary of State, or -a scoping request under regulation 8 of the EIA Regulations has been made to the Secretary of State, or -the Secretary of State has been notified under section 46 of the Planning Act 2008.
For the Dogger Bank Teesside A & B project the s46 notification is dated 21 May 2012, and the scoping request under regulation 8 of the EIA regulations is dated 21 May 2012, therefore Regulation 3 of the amendment regulations does not apply and the Schedule provided in the APFP regulations should be applied in any future consultations.
It is noted that all of the bodies removed from your stage 2 consultation, based on your reading of the amendment regulations, have already been consulted via your stage 1 consultation. On the understanding that stage 1 of your consultation was statutory consultation under s42, this would appear to discharge your statutory duty to consult these bodies. However, you should be aware that the Dogger Bank Teesside A & B project does not appear to us to benefit from the above Amendment Regulations and therefore the consultee list against which this project will be assessed at the acceptance stage is the original list at Schedule 1 of the APFP Regulations. In the interest of continued wide-ranging consultation you may wish to consider adding back these bodies to your stage 2 consultation. Further information is set out in National Infrastructure Advice Note 3 and its annex.
Detailed comment in regard to specific bodies is provided below.
- The National Health Service Commissioning Board and the relevant clinical commissioning Group
If consultation on PEI1 was carried out prior to 1st April 2013 the Strategic Health Authority still existed. If it was the case that the SHA was consulted this should be made clear. It is noted that there is an intention to consult the NHS Commissioning Board and relevant clinical commissioning group in the second round of s42 consultation, this would fulfill the statutory duty to consult "the relevant strategic health authority" as set out in Schedule 1 of the APFP Regulations.
- Scottish Natural Heritage
If you consider that the project could have any effects on land in Scotland, for example on European Sites in Scotland, it would be advisable on a precautionary basis to consult Scottish Natural Heritage under s42. Similar advice has been given for the Hornsea Offshore Wind Farm (project one) at the link below:
- The Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (OFGEM)
Under stage 2 notes it is stated "removed by the 2013 APFP regulations, but due to the nature of the project will continue to be consulted", however in contradiction to this in the previous column it states "no" to the question of whether they will be consulted at Stage 2. In addition the general point above should be noted regarding the Amendment Regulations and their applicability to this project.
- Redcar and Cleveland Primary Care Trust 48 Hartlepool Primary Care Trust
In regard to the above PCTs, it is correct that they have been abolished and cannot be consulted, however they have been replaced by CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups) and LATs (Local Area Teams), these bodies should continue to be consulted. Annex 1 of Advice Note 3 (specifically Table 2 regarding Statutory Undertakers) may assist in identifying these bodies.
- The Secretary of State for Defence (Non-statutory) The MOD
The Secretary of State for Defence should not appear in the Statutory bodies list. Prior to April 2013, the MoD was not a prescribed consultee for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. Although it was added by the Amendment Regulations those regulations do not appear to apply to this project for the reasons given above. The MOD was identified on the Regulation 9 list provided by the Inspectorate as a non-prescribed consultee and it is noted that the intention is to continue consulting with them which seems to us to be a sensible approach.