The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2016

Scoping directions

30.—(1) A person who is minded to make an application for planning permission may ask the Welsh Ministers to provide scoping directions.

(2) A request under paragraph (1) must include—

(a) a plan sufficient to identify the land;

(b) a brief description of the nature and purpose of the development and of its possible effects on the environment;

(c) a statement that the request is made in relation to a development of national significance for the purposes of section 62D of the 1990 Act; and

(d) such other information or representations as the person making the request may wish to provide or make.

(3) A person making a request pursuant to paragraph (1) must send to the relevant planning authority a copy of that request and the documents which accompany that request.

(4) If the Welsh Ministers consider that the information provided pursuant to paragraph (1) is insufficient to make a scoping direction, the Welsh Ministers must give notice to the person making the request.

(5) The notice must set out any points on which additional information is required.

(6) The Welsh Ministers may also request the relevant planning authority to provide such information as they can on any of those points.

(7) The Welsh Ministers must—

(a) consult the person making the request and the consultees before making a scoping direction in response to a request under paragraph (1), and

(b) make a direction and send a copy to the person who made the request and to the relevant planning authority, within 5 weeks beginning with the date of receipt of that request or such longer period as may be reasonably required.

(8) Before making a scoping direction the Welsh Ministers must take into account the matters specified in regulation 13(6).

(9) Nothing prevents the Welsh Ministers, (after they have made a scoping direction) or the relevant planning authority from requiring the person who made the request to provide additional information.

(10) “Additional information” (“gwybodaeth ychwanegol”) in paragraph (9) means information in connection with any statement that may be submitted by that person as an environmental statement for the purposes of these Regulations.