The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999

Procedure to facilitate preparation of environmental statements

12.—(1) Any person who intends to submit an environmental statement to the relevant planning authority or the Secretary of State under these Regulations may give notice in writing to that authority or the Secretary of State under this paragraph.

(2) A notice under paragraph (1) shall include the information necessary to identify the land and the nature and purpose of the development, and shall indicate the main environmental consequences to which the person giving the notice proposes to refer in his environmental statement.

(3) The recipient of—

(a)such notice as is mentioned in paragraph (1); or

(b)a written statement made pursuant to regulation 7(4)(a), or 8(4) or 9(5)

shall—

(i)notify the consultation bodies in writing of the name and address of the person who intends to submit an environmental statement and of the duty imposed on the consultation bodies by paragraph (4) to make information available to that person; and

(ii)inform in writing the person who intends to submit an environmental statement of the names and addresses of the bodies so notified.

(4) Subject to paragraph (5), the relevant planning authority and any body notified in accordance with paragraph (3) shall, if requested by the person who intends to submit an environmental statement enter into consultation with that person to determine whether the body has in its possession any information which he or they consider relevant to the preparation of the environmental statement and, if they have, the body shall make that information available to that person.

(5) Paragraph (4) shall not require the disclosure of information which is capable of being treated as confidential, or must be so treated, under regulation 4 of the Environmental Information Regulations 1992(1).

(6) A reasonable charge reflecting the cost of making the relevant information available may be made by a body, including the relevant planning authority, which makes information available in accordance with paragraph (4).