The Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000

Regulation 27

SCHEDULE 8APPEALS TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE

1.—(1) A person who wishes to appeal to the Secretary of State under regulation 27 shall give to the Secretary of State written notice of the appeal together with the documents specified in sub-paragraph (2) and shall at the same time send to the regulator a copy of that notice together with copies of the documents specified in sub-paragraph (2)(a) and (f).

(2) The documents mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) are—

(a)a statement of the grounds of appeal;

(b)a copy of any relevant application;

(c)a copy of any relevant permit;

(d)a copy of any relevant correspondence between the appellant and the regulator;

(e)a copy of any decision or notice which is the subject matter of the appeal; and

(f)a statement indicating whether the appellant wishes the appeal to be in the form of a hearing or to be disposed of on the basis of written representations.

(3) An appellant may withdraw an appeal by notifying the Secretary of State in writing and shall send a copy of that notification to the regulator.

2.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), notice of appeal in accordance with paragraph 1 is to be given—

(a)in the case of an appeal under regulation 27(1), before the expiry of the period of six months beginning with the date of the decision or deemed decision which is the subject matter of the appeal;

(b)in the case of an appeal under regulation 27(2) against a revocation notice, before the date on which the revocation takes effect;

(c)in the case of an appeal under regulation 27(2) against a variation notice, an enforcement notice or a suspension notice, before the expiry of the period of two months beginning with the date of the notice which is the subject matter of the appeal.

(2) The Secretary of State may in a particular case allow notice of appeal to be given after the expiry of the periods mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)(a) or (c).

3.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (4), the regulator shall, within 14 days of receipt of the copy of the notice of appeal sent in accordance with paragraph 1, give notice of it to—

(a)any person who was required to be given notice of the subject matter of the appeal under paragraph 9 of Schedule 4 or paragraph 4(5) of Schedule 7;

(b)any person who made representations to the regulator with respect to the subject matter of the appeal; and

(c)any person who appears to the regulator to have a particular interest in the subject matter of the appeal.

(2) A notice under sub-paragraph (1) shall—

(a)state that notice of appeal has been given;

(b)state the name of the appellant and, where the appeal concerns an installation or Part A mobile plant, the address of the site of that installation or mobile plant;

(c)describe the application or permit to which the appeal relates;

(d)state that representations with respect to the appeal may be made to the Secretary of State in writing by any recipient of the notice within a period of 21 days beginning with the date of the notice and that copies of any representations so made will be furnished to the appellant and to the regulator;

(e)explain that any such representations made by any person will be entered in a public register unless that person requests in writing that they should not be so entered, and that where such a request is made there will be included in the register a statement indicating only that representations have been made which have been the subject of such a request;

(f)state that if a hearing is to be held wholly or partly in public, a person mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)(b) or (c) who makes representations with respect to the appeal and any person mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)(a) will be notified of the date of the hearing.

(3) The regulator shall, within 14 days of sending a notice under sub-paragraph (1), notify the Secretary of State of the persons to whom and the date on which the notice was sent.

(4) In the event of an appeal being withdrawn, the regulator shall give notice of the withdrawal to every person to whom notice was given under sub-paragraph (1).

4.—(1) Before determining an appeal under regulation 27, the Secretary of State may afford the appellant and the regulator an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed by him (the “appointed person”) and he shall do so in any case where a request is duly made by the appellant or the regulator to be so heard.

(2) A hearing held under sub-paragraph (1) may, if the appointed person so decides, be held wholly or held to any extent, in private.

(3) Where the Secretary of State causes a hearing to be held under sub-paragraph (1) he shall give the appellant and the regulator at least 28 days notice (or such shorter period of notice as they may agree) of the date, time and place fixed for the holding of the hearing.

(4) In the case of a hearing which is to be held wholly or partly in public, the Secretary of State shall, at least 21 days before the date fixed for the holding of the hearing—

(a)where the appeal relates to the operation of an installation or Part A mobile plant, publish a copy of the notice mentioned in sub-paragraph (3) in a newspaper circulating in the locality in which the installation or mobile plant is operated;

(b)serve a copy of that notice on every person mentioned in paragraph 3(1)(a) and on every person mentioned in paragraphs 3(1)(b) and (c) who has made representations in writing to the Secretary of State.

(5) The Secretary of State may vary the date fixed for the holding of any hearing and sub-paragraphs (3) and (4) shall apply to the variation of a date as they applied to the date originally fixed.

(6) The Secretary of State may also vary the time or place for the holding of a hearing and shall give such notice of any such variation as appears to him to be reasonable.

(7) The persons entitled to be heard at a hearing are—

(a)the appellant;

(b)the regulator; and

(c)any person required by paragraph 3(1)(a) to be notified of the appeal.

(8) Nothing in sub-paragraph (7) shall prevent the appointed person from permitting any other persons to be heard at the hearing and such permission shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(9) After the conclusion of a hearing, the appointed person shall make a report in writing to the Secretary of State which shall include his conclusions and his recommendations or his reasons for not making any recommendation.

(10) Subsections (2) to (5) of section 250 of the Local Government Act 1972(1) (local inquiries: evidence and costs) shall apply to hearings held under this paragraph by an appointed person as they apply to inquiries caused to be held under that section by a Minister, but with the following modifications, that is to say—

(a)with the substitution in subsection (2) (evidence) for the reference to the person appointed to hold the inquiry of a reference to the appointed person;

(b)with the substitution in subsection (4) (recovery of costs of holding the inquiry) for the references to the Minister causing the inquiry to be held of references to the Secretary of State;

(c)with the substitution of the reference in that subsection to a local authority with a reference to the regulator;

(d)with the substitution in subsection (5) (orders as to the costs of the parties) for the reference to the Minister causing the inquiry to be held with a reference to the Secretary of State.

5.—(1) Where the appeal is to be disposed of on the basis of written representations, the regulator shall submit any written representations to the Secretary of State not later than 28 days after receiving a copy of the documents mentioned in paragraph 1(2)(a) and (f).

(2) The appellant shall make any further representations by way of reply to any representations from the regulator not later than 17 days after the date of submission of those representations by the regulator.

(3) Any representations made by the appellant or the regulator shall bear the date on which they are submitted to the Secretary of State.

(4) When the regulator or the appellant submits any representations to the Secretary of State they shall at the same time send a copy of them to the other party.

(5) The Secretary of State shall send to the appellant and the regulator a copy of any representations made to him by the persons mentioned in paragraph 3(1) and shall allow the appellant and the regulator a period of not less than 14 days in which to make representations on them.

(6) The Secretary of State may in a particular case—

(a)set later time limits than those mentioned in this paragraph;

(b)require exchanges of representations between the parties in addition to those mentioned in paragraphs (1) and (2).

6.—(1) The Secretary of State shall give notice to the appellant of his determination of the appeal and shall provide him with a copy of any report mentioned in paragraph 4(9).

(2) The Secretary of State shall at the same time send—

(a)a copy of the documents mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) to the regulator and to any persons required under paragraph 3(1)(a) to be notified of the appeal; and

(b)a copy of his determination of the appeal to any person mentioned in paragraph 3(1)(b) and (c) who made representations to the Secretary of State and, if a hearing was held, to any other person who made representations in relation to the appeal at the hearing.

7.  Where a determination of the Secretary of State on an appeal is quashed in proceedings before any court, the Secretary of State—

(a)shall send to the persons notified of his determination under paragraph 6 a statement of the matters with respect to which further representations are invited for the purposes of his further considerations of the appeal;

(b)shall afford to those persons the opportunity of making, within 28 days of the date of the statement, written representations in respect of those matters; and

(c)may, as he thinks fit, cause a hearing to be held or reopened and, if he does so, paragraphs 4(2) to (10) shall apply to the hearing or the reopened hearing as they apply to a hearing held under paragraph 4(1),

and paragraph 6 shall apply to the re-determination of the appeal as it applies to the determination of an appeal.