Advice to Natural England
Back to listEnquiry
- From
- Natural England
- Date advice given
- 27 September 2011
- Enquiry type
It would be useful for Natural England’s forward planning to view data regarding the pre-app stage of the process, so that we can estimate:
- How long NSIP cases take between first encounter and the end of the pre-app stage.
- How many of the cases are with different sectors (energy, water etc).
- How many and which cases have had Habitats Regulation impacts and how many have EIA implications
- How many cases drop out (and after how long) from the NSIP process during pre-app.
If it is possible to get these - for England only.
Advice given
As you are aware the pre-application stage can go on for an undetermined amount of time, timescales at pre-submission are driven by the developer and influenced by a whole host of factors. Indeed projects often come into the public domain before promoters notify the IPC. This is a matter of choice for the promoter in determining the timescales they wish to work to in the pre-submission stage and the point at which they notify a potential project. In the case of the first four projects the facts are set out in attached document: Timescale for first four National Significant Infrastructure Projects between first encounter and the end of the pre-app stage.pdf
This information is available on our website - the project overview page provides a breakdown via the filters (http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/projects/) for each sector. This information is on a daily live feed from our own systems. You may also be interested to know that a summary of projects and the current projection of timescales is attached to our e-newsletter each month and you may be interested in registering for this update as it collates information on all projects and provides an overview.
Our EIA teams are involved from the outset on all projects at pre-submission. Promoters contact us with varying timescales. In so far as the four applications which have been accepted for examination all of which were accompanied by an Environmental Statement and 3 with specific Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) reports.
Of the remaining projects (60+) at pre-application stage it is not possible to confirm the exact number which have EIA's in preparation indeed they are at different stages of evolution. However the IPC are asking all developers as a minimum to prepare an HRA screening statement / no significant effects report (see Habitat Regulation Assessment - Advice Note 10 attached) and this will likely be an issue for every project. The exact number of projects with HRA issues is not available for the reason stated above. 4. The IPC website shows all archived projects. On each project record a brief description of why a project is not proceeding and this does vary. The reasons given include availability of funding, and commercial decisions by a developer. If you wish to look at this in more detail you are able to filter the information from the projects page by searching on archived projects.