Planning Act 2008

95 Hearings: disruption, supervision and costs

(1) Where an interested party or any other person behaves in a disruptive manner at a hearing, the Examining authority may decide to do any one or more of the following—

(a) exclude the person from all, or part, of the remainder of the hearing;

(b) allow the person to continue to attend the hearing only if the person complies with conditions specified by the Examining authority;

(c) exclude the person from other hearings;

(d) direct that the person is allowed to attend other hearings only if the person complies with conditions specified by the Examining authority.

(2) In this section “hearing” means—

(a) a preliminary meeting under section 88,

(b) a hearing under section 91(2),

(c) a compulsory acquisition hearing (see section 92),

(d) an open-floor hearing (see section 93),

(e) any other meeting or hearing that the Examining authority causes to be held for the purposes of the Examining authority’s examination of the application, or

(f) a site visit.

(3) The Examining authority’s examination of the application is a statutory inquiry for the purposes of Schedule 7 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (c. 15) (functions etc. of Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council).

(4) Subsection (5) of section 250 of the Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) (provisions about costs applying where Minister causes a local inquiry to be held) applies in relation to the Examining authority’s examination of the application as it applies in relation to an inquiry under that section, but with references to the Minister causing the inquiry to be held being read as references to the Examining authority.

This is subject to subsection (5) of this section.

(5) Subsections (6) to (8) of section 210 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) (provisions about expenses applying where Minister causes a local inquiry to be held) apply in relation to the Examining authority’s examination of the application in so far as relating to a hearing held in Scotland as they apply in relation to an inquiry under that section, but with references to the Minister causing the inquiry to be held being read as references to the Examining authority.