Government Designates National Policy Statements for Energy Infrastructure

Thursday 28th July 2011

On 19 July 2011, following approval by the House of Commons on the previous day, the Government designated its finalised National Policy Statements ("NPS"s) for energy infrastructure under the Planning Act 2008.

An overarching energy NPS, which sets out the Government’s policy for delivering major energy infrastructure, is accompanied by five sector-specific NPSs:

• Fossil Fuel Electricity Generating Infrastructure;
• Renewable Energy Infrastructure;
• Gas Supply Infrastructure & Gas and Oil Pipelines;
• Electricity Networks Infrastructure; and
• Nuclear Power Generation.

The NPSs set out national policy and will be used by the Infrastructure Planning Commission ("IPC") in making decisions on applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects.  If the changes to the Planning Act 2008 proposed in the Localism Bill are enacted, the IPC will be abolished and replaced by a Major Infrastructure Planning Unit ("MIPU") within the Planning Inspectorate.  The role of examining applications for major energy infrastructure projects would then be taken on by the MIPU, which would pass a report and recommendation about each application to the Secretary of State to make the final decision.

Applicants for new energy infrastructure projects should ensure that their applications and supporting documentation are in line with the overarching NPS, the relevant technology-specific NPS and any other NPSs that may be relevant.