8.—(1) When the Secretary of State receives a relevant application which complies with the requirements of article 4 or 5, as the case may be, and also receives—
(a)the certificate required by article 10;
(b)in a case to which article 7 applies, the design and access statement;
(c)subject to paragraph (2), the particulars or evidence which would be required by the designated planning authority under section 62(3) of the 1990 Act(1) had the application been made to that authority; and
(d)the fee required to be paid in respect of the application,
the Secretary of State must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, send to the applicant an acknowledgement of the application.
(2) Paragraph (1)(c) only applies if—
(a)before the application is made to the Secretary of State the designated planning authority publishes or republishes, for the purposes of article 29(3) of the 2010 Order, a list of requirements on a website; and
(b)the particulars or evidence required to be included in the application fall within that list; and
(c)the list mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) was published (or republished) during the 2 year period immediately before the date on which the application is made.
(3) Where, after sending an acknowledgement as required by paragraph (1), the Secretary of State considers that the relevant application is not a valid application, the Secretary of State must, as soon as reasonably practicable, notify the applicant that the application is not a valid application.
(4) In this article “valid application” means a relevant application which consists of—
(a)a relevant application which complies with the requirements of article 4 or 5, as the case may be; and
(b)the items mentioned in paragraphs (1)(a) to (d),
and a valid application is taken to have been received when the application, and such of the documents, particulars or evidence referred to above as are required to be included in, or to accompany, the application have been lodged with the Secretary of State and the fee required to be paid has been paid.
Section 62 was substituted by section 42(1) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (c. 5). Section 62(3) of the 1990 Act applies to applications made under section 62A of the 1990 Act by virtue of section 76C(1) of that Act (which was inserted by paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 (c. 27)).