Advice to Suffolk County Council

Enquiry

• From: Suffolk County Council
• Date advice given: 18 January 2018
• Enquiry type: Phone

Query regarding timing of consultation

Advice given

Further to our telephone conversation, about requesting a Scoping Opinion from the Planning Inspectorate (the Inspectorate) at the same time or closely followed by consultation on the Preliminary Environmental Information (PEI) and formal consultation, we are not aware that this approach has been used before.

The purpose of scoping is to gather information about the aspects and matters that should be assessed and considered in an Environmental Statement (ES) and how. The purpose of undertaking an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and producing an ES is to provide information about the likely significant effects (LSE) of a Proposed Development, and this is usually preceded by scoping, although scoping is not mandatory.

According to Regulation 12(2)(b) of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 (EIA Regs 2017), PEI means:

‘information referred to in regulation 14(2) which is reasonably required for the consultation bodies to develop an informed view of the likely significant environmental effects of the development (and of any associated development)’.

Having considered the above, where the usual sequence is not followed (or are undertaken in rapid succession), it is the view of the Inspectorate that:

A) there is potential that the PEI report (PEIR) not provide sufficient information to allow consultees to reach informed views about the LSE, particularly if it contains similar information to that in the scoping report; or

B) it would be an unnecessary duplication of information and resources if the PEIR contained similar information about the potential LSE to that contained in the scoping report, and there appears to be no value therefore in requesting a scoping opinion for the purpose of informing the ES: and

C) should a scoping opinion be requested, an Applicant risks the Inspectorate deciding that certain matters need to be scoped in which have not been included in the PEI report, and therefore will not have been considered by consultees.

Aside from the above, there are also obvious practical problems of consultees being asked for comments on documents from the Applicant and the Inspectorate either at the same time or repeatedly within a short time period, potentially leading to confusion and/or responses that are of limited benefit to the Applicant.

Further advice about scoping and preparation of an ES is provided in the Inspectorate’s Advice Note Seven: ‘Environmental Impact Assessment: Process, Preliminary Environmental Information and Environmental Statements’, available on the National Infrastructure Planning website.