The Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017

Regulation 7 (opinion of the Department)

8.  In regulation 7—

(a) for paragraph (1) substitute—

“(1) Where a proposer applies to the Department under regulation 6, the Department shall give to him written notice of its opinion within 90 days beginning with the date of its receipt of the application or, where it notifies the proposer under regulation 6(3) that it requires further information, the date of its receipt of that information.

(1A) In exceptional cases, where the nature, complexity, location or size of the works demands a longer period for determination, the Department may extend the deadline in paragraph (1), informing the proposer in writing of the reasons justifying the extension and of the date on which its determination is expected.”

(b) after paragraph (4), add—

“(4A) Where the opinion of the Department is that a project is not a relevant project because an environmental assessment is not required, the Department must state the main reasons for not requiring such assessment, with reference to the relevant selection criteria in Schedule 3, and where proposed by the proposer, state any features of the project or measures envisaged to avoid or prevent what might otherwise have been significant adverse effects on the environment.”;

(c) for paragraph (5) substitute—

“(5) The Department may, in the absence of an application under regulation 6, give its opinion whether or not a project is or would be a relevant project and where it gives an opinion under this paragraph—

(a) it shall give written notice of its opinion to any person who reasonably appears to it to be the proposer; and

(b) paragraphs (2), (3), (4), (4A), (5) and (7) shall apply as they do to an opinion given under paragraph (1).”.