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Advice to Environment Agency

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Enquiry

From
Environment Agency
Date advice given
22 April 2014
Enquiry type
Email

Is section 42 consultation defined and when is consultation regarded as formal / informal?

Advice given

There is no detailed definition of what s.42 consultation should look like. Needless to say it’s a consultation aimed at statutory consultees and land owners. Therefore we would expect it to be technical in nature in order to facilitate the progressively detailed preparation of the application, depending on what stage the consultation has reached.

Once a developer has notified PINS under section 46 then all consultation from that point can be considered as “formal” in the sense that it is being carried out pursuant to the PA2008. Calling consultation “informal” after PINS have been notified is pointless in both PR and legal terms. Some s.42 consultation may happen iteratively and may be targeted at certain groups eg SNCB’s; from PINS’ point of view this is fine as long as the rationale for targeting certain consultee groups is justified and reasonable, and reported in the Consultation Report.