Environmental Impact Assessment (Uncultivated Land and Semi-Natural Areas) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Screening procedure

5.—(1) An application for a screening decision shall be accompanied by—

(a) a plan sufficient to identify the relevant land;

(b) a brief description of the nature, extent and purpose of the project and of its possible effects on the environment; and

(c) such other information or representations as the applicant may wish to provide or make.

(2) The Department shall notify the applicant of the date on which the application was received by it.

(3) If the Department considers that it does not have sufficient information to make the screening decision it may request that the applicant supply any additional information that it requires.

(4) The Department shall decide in accordance with the selection criteria set out in Schedule 1 and paragraph (5) whether a project is likely to have a significant effect on the environment within thirty-five days of the date notified to the applicant in accordance with paragraph (2) or such longer period as may be agreed with the applicant and before reaching such a decision may consult with such of the consultation bodies as it thinks fit.

(5) A project which the Department decides is likely to have a significant effect on a European site (either alone or in combination with other projects), and which is not directly connected with or necessary to the management of the site, shall be treated for the purposes of these Regulations as likely to have a significant effect on the environment.

(6) The Department shall—

(a) notify the screening decision together with a statement giving the full reasons for the decision to the applicant;

(b) enter the screening decision in a register to which the public shall have access at all reasonable times; and

(c) notify the screening decision to such of the consultation bodies as would, in its opinion, wish to be informed of it.

(7) If an applicant who has not been notified of a screening decision within the period specified in paragraph (4) notifies the Department that he intends to treat such failure to notify him as a decision that the project is a relevant project, the Department shall be deemed to have decided that the project is a relevant project on the date that it is so notified by the applicant.

(8) If at any time after the Department has decided that a project is a relevant project under this regulation, it shall receive further information or representations which cause it to decide that the project is not a relevant project, it shall notify that decision and provide a statement giving the full reasons for the decision to the applicant and to the consultation bodies notified in accordance with paragraph 6(c) and shall enter the decision in the register referred to in paragraph (6)(b).

(9) If a project to which a screening decision relates has not been commenced before the expiry of three years from the date on which that decision was notified to the applicant or of the date it was deemed to have been decided in accordance with paragraph (7), or of such longer period as may have been agreed by the Department, that screening decision shall cease to have effect.