7.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), any authority, body or person notified in accordance with these Regulations that a person has applied for consent or a licence for a development to which the prohibition in regulation 3 applies shall, if requested by the applicant, or may, without any such request, enter into consultation with him with a view to ascertaining whether they have any information in their possession which he or they consider relevant to the preparation of the environmental statement and shall make any such information available to him.
(2) Nothing in paragraph (1) shall require the disclosure of any information which the body concerned are entitled or bound to hold in confidence or must be so treated under regulation 4 of the Environmental Information Regulations 1992(1).
S.I. 1992/3240, as amended by S.I. 1998/1447.