Advice to RWE nPower
Back to listEnquiry
- From
- RWE nPower
- Date advice given
- 17 May 2012
- Enquiry type
Is it acceptable for the Inspectorate to receive the information in support of s 127 as part of the Statement of Reasons?
Advice given
The letter from DfT inter alia sets out that the Secretary of State for Transport (SoS T) considers that the persons best suited to prepare a report to inform the (SoS T) on any matter which may be relevant to her decision as to whether or not to issue a s127 certificate are persons appointed by the Planning Inspectorate. It further indicates that the SoS T "has no objection to the appointment of a s127 examiner who is (a) a member of the Panel which is to examine the application for development consent to which the proposed DCO relates ("the relevant application"); or (b) where no Panel is appointed, the person appointed under section 79 of the Act in respect of the relevant application (...)". We therefore have the ability to run the s127 certificate examination process in parallel to the DCO application examination.
However, the consideration of the matters relating to the issuing of a s127 certificate is nevertheless still a distinct and separate process from the DCO application examination. Hence, to avoid any confusion and to make it easy for everyone to understand which documents relate to which process, we do not consider it appropriate to merge information to support the s127 certificate process into documents which support the DCO application. We would therefore be grateful if you could provide the information in support of the s127 certificate in a discrete document, clearly labelled as such, to allow us to publish this in the separate 's127 area' of the project-page on our web-site.
You may find it helpful to take a look at the Galloper application as the lead member of the Examining authority for this case, has recently been appointed separately to examine on behalf of, and make a recommendation to, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in relation to an application for a certificate under s127 of the Planning Act 2008 (as amended). The decision as to whether or not to grant a certificate under s127 is in this case one made by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. (See eg the Rule 6 letter, Annex G and the correspondence sent to the relevant parties notifying the appointment of the inspector examining the s127 application (http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/projects/eastern/galloper-offshore-wind-farm/?ipcsection=folder).