The Infrastructure Planning (Prescribed Consultees and Interested Parties etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend five statutory instruments relating to major infrastructure—

(a) The Infrastructure Planning (National Policy Statement Consultation) Regulations 2009 (regulation 2),

(b) The Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 (regulation 3),

(c) The Infrastructure Planning (Interested Parties) Regulations 2010 (regulation 4),

(d) The Infrastructure Planning (Compulsory Acquisition) Regulations 2010 (regulation 5), and

(e) The Infrastructure Planning (Changes to, and Revocation of, Development Consent Orders) Regulations 2011 (regulation 6).

The amendments update the lists of bodies contained in those Regulations to—

(a) remove bodies which no longer exist,

(b) remove certain other bodies,

(c) replace bodies where other bodies have taken over functions or where a body has changed its name,

(d) change the circumstances in which certain bodies are to be contacted, and

(e) insert certain new bodies.

Certain amendments apply to nationally significant infrastructure projects in England only, while others apply to all projects.

Transitional and savings provisions in regulation 7 provide that the amendments contained in these Regulations will not apply to certain applications or proposed applications for orders granting development consent.

In the case of an application or proposed application which has been notified to the Secretary of State under section 46 of the Planning Act 2008 before 6th April 2013, the amendments made to the Infrastructure Planning (Interested Parties) Regulations 2010 will not apply to that application or proposed application and the amendments to the Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 will not apply to that application for the purposes of regulations 3 and 8 of those regulations, which prescribe bodies to be consulted and notified.

For the purposes of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009, the amendments made by these regulations to the definition of “consultation bodies” (which is defined by reference to the Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 do not apply to any application or proposed application which has been notified to the Secretary of State under regulation 6, or about which a request has been made to the Secretary of State under regulation 8, before 6th April 2013.

No Impact Assessment has been prepared for these Regulations but an Impact Assessment was published as part of the original consultation and is available at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nationally-significant-infrastructure-planning-expanding-and-improving-the-one-stop-shop-approach-for-consents.