GovWire

The Planning Inspectorate, in close collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and other government departments, is actively shaping future service offerings for the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) sector, as outlined in theNSIP Reform Action Plan.

In anews story dated 7 July 2023, the Planning Inspectorate announced the launch of the Early Adopters Programme (EAP). The EAP sees seven NSIP projects, identified through an expression of interest exercise undertaken in April 2023, trialling various potential components of a future enhanced pre-application service.

Circa six months into the EAP, the Planning Inspectorate reflects on the experience of the programme to date and elaborates on the role of the trials in helping to develop the final design of the reformed service which is expected to be available to applicants, and the wider system, in 2024.

What has happened so far?

During the summer the Planning Inspectorate held meetings with each of the participating projects to initiate development of the components that the applicants had chosen to trial.

Since the initial meetings at least one further meeting has been held with each applicant to monitor their progress and understand how the components are shaping up. The Planning Inspectorate is helping to refine the brief around each component in order to optimise the expected value within the reformed pre-application service. In this respect flexibility and responsiveness from the EAP applicants is key to the trials success.

The Planning Inspectorate has also established a bi-monthly cross-government forum with affected agencies from Defra and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This provides an essential opportunity for those agencies to share experience of their interaction with the EAP and contribute to the final design of the reformed service. The agencies attending this forum include Natural England, The Environment Agency and Historic England.

What have we learnt so far?

We are already learning a great deal from the EAP, with feedback from applicants and affected statutory agencies actively informing the maturing design of a reformed and improved service.

The additional work EAP applicants are doing to frontload evidence anticipates benefit to processes at post-submission stages; however, this is not a guarantee of engagement in the trials and those participating understand this. Notably, there are accepted limitations associated with commencing trials later in the pre-application process, which based on the original qualifying criteria for the EAP is representative of each project involved. The reformed service will see the Planning Inspectorate supporting the development of all relevant components from project inception in order to surface key evidence earlier, maximise positive influence on the pre-application programme and achieve smoother and potentially faster post-submission stages.

The Planning Inspectorate offers the following reflections in relation the ongoing development of the components being trialled through the EAP. Please refer to the news story dated 7 July 2023 for a summary description of the original brief in relation to each component. Note that the components involved in the EAP are not an exhaustive representation of the components that may feature within a reformed and improved pre-application service:

1. Use of Programme Planning (mandatory for all projects)

The Programme Planning element of the EAP has developed since its inception to establish two discrete tools: a higher-level Public Programme Plan (PPP) which is published and maintained on the applicants website, and a Detailed Programme Plan (DPP) which is not publicly available but is shared with key statutory and other consultees to inform resourcing and interactions.

PPPs have been prepared and published by all EAP applicants. An example from Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm is available. It is already clear that for DPPs to add value to the process they need to be shared early and proactively reviewed with key stakeholders to assist with resource planning and enable an optimised service to be provided. Within a future service, at the outset of pre-application we would expect applicants to be responsive in tailoring programmes to service the engagement of statutory agencies and other key consultees.

2. Use of Evidence Plans

One EAP project, Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm, is trialling the Evidence Planning component. This has proved to be a challenging component for the Planning Inspectorate to engage in effectively as an Evidence Plan Process (EPP) had already been established by the applicant with finalised terms of reference and an independent chairperson. Some encouraging feedback has been received from consultees relating to the Planning Inspectorates involvement at EPP steering groups in this case, but we expect that within a future service our involvement in the EPP from the outset will provide an opportunity to influence the programme and provide early, assertive advice which will maximise benefits to the system.

3. Use of Issues Tracking

The Issues Tracking component is engaged by four EAP applicants. As would be expected, internal tools are already established by each applicant to record issues and monitor status. Whilst there have been some benefits associated with better transparency of issues, it has proved challenging to translate the complexity of applicant-owned issues trackers into a simplified agenda of issues for discussion with the Planning Inspectorate. Work is ongoing to refine this component and clarify the relationship between issues tracking, Principal Areas of Disagreement Statements and Statements of Common Ground within an optimised future service.

4. Use of Pre-application Principal Areas of Disagreement Summary Statements (PADSS)

Three EAP applicants are trialling Pre-application PADSS. Pre-application PADSS are a new initiative being trialled under the EAP, whilst post-submission PADSS, which are already being used by appointed Examining Authorities, are not part of the EAP. Within a future service it is expected that Pre-application PADSS, initiated circa project inception, will be sustained into the examination. On this basis they will be the same tool available to the system at different stages.

The EAP has raised some important considerations around ownership of PADSS and their relationship with issues tracking and Statements of Common of Ground. The Planning Inspectorate considers that these are all separate tools which offer unique value to the system and their separate functions and interactions, which will all contribute towards an improvement in the way knowledge is transferred between pre-application and post-submission stages, will be clarified in the future service.

5. Production of Policy Compliance Document (PCD)

Four EAP applicants are preparing a PCD to support their application. To date, draft iterations of this document comprising scope and structure only have been shared with the Planning Inspectorate. An example of advice provided in relation to this document for Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm is available.

Some clarification has been required around the scope of the PCD and the separation of intended functions between the PCD and the Planning Statement, which affected EAP applicants now understand.

Elaborated advice has been issued to Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm in this respect.

6. Demonstrating regard to advice

One EAP project, Byers Gill Solar, has engaged this component. Draft evidence associated with this component is expected to be provided by this applicant shortly. The finalised evidence within the submitted application will provide assurance to the system that advice issued by the Planning Inspectorate and statutory consultees has been considered by the applicant and shaped the final form of the application. In line with 