New Legislation – relating to infrastructure planning (31/12/2020) …

The following 1 new Statutory Instrument (SI) comes into force "immediately before 11 p.m. on 31st December 2020":

New Legislation:

  • December 2020: SI 2020 No. 1534 - The Infrastructure Planning (Publication and Notification of Applications etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (pdf) (link).

Notes:

  • The above SI 2020 No. 1534 makes amendments to the following SIs:
    - The Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009.
    - The Infrastructure Planning (Compulsory Acquisition) Regulations 2010.
    - The Infrastructure Planning (Changes to, and Revocation of, Development Consent Orders) Regulations 2011.
    - The Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017.
  • In addition, the above SI 2020 No. 1534 deletes the "Transitional provisions" within the earlier SI 2020 No. 764. This affects the amendments made by the earlier SI 2020 No. 764 to the above 4 SIs.
  • Note: The "Explanatory Memorandum" (link) to SI 2020 No. 1534 states the following:
    - "Temporary changes were made by [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764], which came into force on 22nd July 2020, to remove certain requirements placed on applicants (and the Secretary of State, where appropriate) to make certain documents available at places, including in the vicinity of a proposed project for inspection and to make provision about those documents being made available on a website. This instrument [SI 2020 No. 1534] makes those temporary changes permanent.".
  • The "Explanatory Note" (link) at the end of SI 2020 No. 1534 includes the following information:
    - "These Regulations [SI 2020 No. 1534] amend the Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 (“the 2009 Regulations”), the Infrastructure Planning (Changes to, and Revocation of, Development Consent Orders) Regulations 2011 (“the 2011 Regulations”), the Infrastructure Planning (Compulsory Acquisition) Regulations 2010 (“the 2010 Regulations”) and the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 (“the 2017 Regulations”) to remove the requirements to make documentation available for inspection at places including at least one address in the vicinity of the proposed development (or land, or additional land, as appropriate).".
    - "Regulation 2 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] amends regulations 4, 8 and 9 of the 2009 Regulations so that the documents associated with proposed and accepted applications for development consent can be made available on the applicant’s website (or on a website maintained by or on behalf of the Secretary of State, as appropriate) instead of copies being made available for inspection at places including in the vicinity of the proposed development. Regulation 2 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] also omits the temporary regulation 9A inserted by [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764].".
    - "Regulation 3 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] amends regulations 6, 14, 19, 20, 55 and 56 of the 2011 Regulations so that the documents associated with applications for non-material changes to a development consent order (“DCO”) and proposed and actual applications to make a material change to, or revocation of, a DCO, and exceptional amendments to DCOs, can be made available on the applicant’s website (or on a website maintained by or on behalf of the Secretary of State, as appropriate), instead of copies being made available for inspection at places including in the vicinity of the proposed development (or land, as appropriate). Regulation 3 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] also omits the temporary regulations 6A, 20A and 56A inserted by [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764].".
    - "Regulation 4 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] amends regulations 7 and 8 of the 2010 Regulations so that proposals to include the compulsory purchase of additional land in a DCO can be made available on a website maintained by or on behalf of the Secretary of State, instead of copies being made available for inspection at places including in the vicinity of the additional land. Regulation 4 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] also omits the temporary regulation 8A inserted by [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764].".
    - "Regulation 5 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] amends regulations 19, 20, 22, 24 and 27 of the 2017 Regulations so that where, in relation to a DCO, a screening opinion may not have taken account of all relevant information, an environmental statement may be inadequate, a subsequent application for development requiring an environmental impact assessment (“EIA”) is made, or a subsequent application not complying with EIA requirements is made, the environmental statement (and, where appropriate, supporting documents) can be made available on a website maintained on behalf of the Secretary of State (or, where appropriate, on behalf of the relevant authority), instead of copies being made available for inspection at places including in the vicinity of the proposed development. Regulation 5 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] also omits the temporary regulation 27A inserted by [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764].".
    - "Regulation 6 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] omits the transitional provisions contained in [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764], which are restated with amendment in Regulation 7 of these Regulations [SI 2020 No. 1534].".
    - "Regulation 7 [of SI 2020 No. 1534] sets out transitional provisions. If, when the amendments in [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764] came into force on 22nd July 2020, an applicant (or the Secretary of State as appropriate) had already complied in part with a provision listed in regulation 7(3) [of SI 2020 No. 1534] for the purpose of a particular application, provision or order, that provision will continue to apply without the amendments in [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764] and these Regulations [SI 2020 No. 1534] for the purpose of that application, provision or order (or, in the case of section 56(2) of the Planning Act 2008, regulation 8 of the 2009 Regulations will continue to apply without the amendments in [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764] and these Regulations [SI 2020 No. 1534]).".
    - "If, in the period beginning with 22nd July 2020 and ending with 31st December 2020, an applicant (or the Secretary of State as appropriate) had already complied in part with a provision listed in regulation 7(3) [of SI 2020 No. 1534] for the purpose of a particular application, provision or order, that provision will continue to apply with the amendments in [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764] but without the amendments in these Regulations [SI 2020 No. 1534] for the purpose of that application, provision or order (or, in the case of section 56(2) of the Planning Act 2008, regulation 8 of the 2009 Regulations will continue to apply with the amendments in [the earlier SI 2020 No. 764] but without the amendments in these Regulations [SI 2020 No. 1534]).".

Other Notes:

  • The "Explanatory Memorandum" (link) to SI 2020 No. 1534 states the following:
    - "There are no current plans for a consolidation.".

Other Sources of Information:

  • Note: For more information about the earlier SI 2020 No. 764, please view this post.
  • July 2020: MHCLG "Guidance on procedural requirements for major infrastructure projects" (link).
    - Note: The above guidance was updated in December 2020.
  • December 2020: "Explanatory Memorandum" to SI 2020 No. 764 (pdf) (link).

Updates to the Planning Jungle website: