Advice to Colin Murphy
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- From
- Colin Murphy
- Date advice given
- 9 February 2012
- Enquiry type
Phone call asking for clarification on the items listed in the hearing agendas, in particular as the applicant was concerned they had not given an adequate response to the ExA further questions under R17.
Advice given
Following our telephone conversation regarding the revised agendas, the Examining authority has asked me to make it clear that the presence of a potential change to the draft DCO on the agenda for a Hearing does not indicate necessarily that there is particular objection to the amendment being proposed or the issue being resolved. It is however considered by him to be good practice for all proposed changes to the draft DCO to be aired at the Hearings particularly so that recently submitted proposed changes may be the subject of representations from other Interested Parties in the Hearings who have not yet had an opportunity to comment upon them.
It may be that a number of agenda items may be despatched relatively succinctly whilst others may require more testing. In general terms the Examining authority is under a clear duty in conducting the Hearings "to probe, test and assess the evidence through direct questioning" as set out in paragraph 105 of the Secretary of State's "Guidance for the examination of applications for development consent for nationally significant infrastructure projects.