These Regulations consolidate with amendments the provisions of the Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the 1999 Regulations”) and subsequent amending regulations. The 1999 Regulations consolidated and updated earlier regulations which implemented Council Directive 85/337/EEC O.J. No. L. 175, 5.7.1985, p 40 (“the EIA Directive”) on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. The EIA Directive was amended by Directive 97/11/EC, (O.J. No. L 73, 14.3.1997, p.5); Directive 2003/35/EC, (O.J. No. L 156, 25.6.2003, p.17); and Directive 2009/31/EC, (O.J. No. 140, 5.6.2009, p.114).

These Regulations include provisions regarding the application of these Regulations to the Crown, which are similar to the provisions in Article 9 of the Planning (Application of Subordinate Legislation to the Crown) Order (Northern Ireland) 2006.(S.R. 2006 No. 218) (“the 2006 Order”), which applied the 1999 Regulations to the Crown. Article 9 of the 2006 Order is consequently revoked.

The main changes to the 1999 Regulations are: a a requirement for the reasons for negative screening decisions to be made available on request (regulation 7(9)) b a limitation to the requirement for subsequent applications to be subject to the screening process to those cases where the development in question is likely to have significant effects on the environment which were not identified at the time that the initial planning permission was granted (regulation 11) c an amendment to the provisions for publicity for further information or any other information received for the purposes of a public inquiry (regulation 19) d Schedules 1 and 2 are amended to include sites for the storage of carbon dioxide (Schedule 1 paragraphs 23 and 24), installations for the capture of carbon dioxide streams for the purposes of geological storage and .pipelines for the transport of carbon dioxide streams for such purposes (Schedule 2 paragraphs 3(k).and 10(k)).. These amendments are required by the Directive on the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide (Directive 2009/31/EC) e an amendment to the provisions relating to changes or extensions to existing development, so that the effects of the development as a whole once modified are considered (Schedule 2 paragraphs 13(a) and (b))

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in relation to these Regulations. A copy may be obtained from the Department of the Environment, Planning Policy Division, Millennium House, 17-25 Great Victoria Street, Belfast, BT2 7BN (Tel: 028 90416967) or accessed at http://www.planningni.gov.uk/