Advice to Office for Nuclear Development

Enquiry

• From: Office for Nuclear Development
• Date advice given: 14 April 2011
• Enquiry type: Email

Mr Petrie enquired how the IPC would consider material changes to a Development Consent Order after an application has been submitted and before consent has been granted in the absence of regulations provided for under Section 114 of the Planning Act 2008 (the Act).

Mr Petrie also enquired whether such regulations should be made by the Secretary of State.

Advice given

Regulations under s114(2) of the Planning Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) have been made in respect of the compulsory acquisition of additional land. In respect of any other material changes which may be proposed to the draft DCO submitted with the application, the Commission will act in accordance with principles established in case law concerning proposed changes to planning applications. Broadly speaking, this means the Examining Authority would need to come to a view on the materiality of the proposed change taking into account whether full consultation (rather than consultation within within the examination process) would be required. Furthermore, the proposed change would need to have been considered in the Environmental Statement, and therefore it is possible that further information would need to be sought under Regulation 17 of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009. The decision whether a change could be accepted would need to be made on the facts in each individual case.

Whether further Regulations should be made under s114(2) is a matter for the Secretary of State. The IPC has no power to issue guidance on this matter, and is unlikely to be able to add to any significant extent to the above advice.