The Planning (Electronic Communications) Order (Northern Ireland) 2006

1.—(1) Regulation 2 (interpretation) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In paragraph (1), after the definition of “Department”, there shall be inserted the following definition—

““electronic communication” has the meaning assigned to it by section 4 of the Electronic Communications Act (Northern Ireland) 2001.”.

(3) After paragraph (3) there shall be inserted—

“(4) In these Regulations, and in relation to the use of electronic communications for any purpose of these Regulations which is capable of being carried out—

(a) the expression “address” includes any number or address used for the purpose of such communications;

(b) references to forms, plans, notices or other documents or to copies of such things include references to such documents or copies of them in electronic form.

(5) Paragraphs (6) to (10) apply where an electronic communication is used by a person for the purpose of fulfilling any requirement in these Regulations to give or send any form, plan, notice or other document to any other person (“the recipient”).

(6) The requirement shall (except in a case referred to in paragraph (7)) be taken to be fulfilled where the notice or other document transmitted by means of electronic communication is—

(a) capable of being accessed by the recipient;

(b) legible in all material respects; and

(c) sufficiently permanent to be used for subsequent reference.

(7) The cases are—

(a) serving notice under regulation 6(3);

(b) serving notice requiring application for express consent under regulation 11.

(8) In paragraph (6), “legible in all material respects” means that the information contained in the notice or document is available to the recipient to no lesser extent than it would be if sent or given by means of a document in printed form.

(9) Where the electronic communication is received by the recipient outside the recipient’s business hours, it shall be taken to have been received on the next working day; and for this purpose “working day” means a day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday.

(10) A requirement in these Regulations that any application, notice or other document should be in writing is fulfilled where the document meets the criteria in paragraph (6), and “written” and cognate expressions are to be construed accordingly.”.