The Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No.2) Regulations 2006

Determination of appeals by hearing or local inquiry

34.—(1) This regulation applies where an appeal is to be determined by hearing or by local inquiry.

(2) Within 6 weeks of receiving notice that the appeal is to be so determined, the appellant and Natural England must serve on the Secretary of State a statement containing full particulars of his or its case and copies of any documents he or it wishes to rely on at the hearing or local inquiry.

(3) After receiving the statements and documents in paragraph (2), the Secretary of State must send copies of them to the other participants in the appeal.

(4) The Secretary of State must—

(a) give the participants in the appeal 6 weeks’ notice of the date, time and place fixed for the hearing or local inquiry and the name of the person appointed to conduct the hearing or local inquiry (or, as applicable, to determine the appeal); and

(b) give such notice as he thinks fit to inform the public not less than 21 days before the date fixed for the hearing or local inquiry.

(5) The Secretary of State may vary the time or place for the hearing or local inquiry and must give such notice of the variation as he thinks fit.

(6) If an interested party wishes to be heard at the hearing or local inquiry he must notify the Secretary of State within 28 days of being sent the appellant’s and Natural England’s statements under paragraph (3).

(7) Where an interested party has so notified the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State may require him to submit a statement containing the particulars of his case and copies of any documents he wishes to refer to (except documents which the appellant or Natural England served under paragraph (2)).

(8) The Secretary of State must send copies of any statements and documents received under paragraph (7) to the appellant and to Natural England.

(9) The Secretary of State may require any person who has provided him with a statement under paragraph (2) or (7) to provide him with any further information he specifies in relation to the statement, and must send a copy of the further information to each of the other participants in the appeal.

(10) Before a hearing or local inquiry takes place the Secretary of State must make all of the documents submitted available for inspection by any person who so requests.

(11) The participants in the appeal are entitled to be heard at a hearing or local inquiry.

(12) Any participant in the appeal who proposes to give evidence at an inquiry by reading a witness statement must send a copy of the witness statement, and a written summary of it, to the Secretary of State not less than 3 weeks before the date fixed for the inquiry, and the Secretary of State must send copies of the witness statement and summary to the other participants in the appeal.

(13) After the conclusion of the hearing or local inquiry, the person appointed to conduct the hearing or local inquiry must, unless he has been appointed to determine the appeal, make a report to the Secretary of State which must include—

(a) his conclusions; and

(b) his recommendations or his reasons for not making any recommendations.

(14) If the Secretary of State is minded to disagree with the recommendation made in the report because he—

(a) differs from the person making the report on any matter of fact mentioned in, or appearing to him to be material to, a conclusion reached by that person; or

(b) takes into consideration new evidence or a new matter of fact,

he must not come to a decision without first giving every person who appeared at the hearing or local inquiry an opportunity to make representations within a reasonable time specified by him.

(15) The Secretary of State or the person appointed to determine the appeal must notify the participants in the appeal of his decision, the reasons for it and, where a report has been made in accordance with paragraph (13), a copy of that report.