Regulation 5 of the Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 prescribes the various documents and information that must accompany applications for orders granting development consent. Significantly, this includes the production of an envi­ronmental statement (and any relevant scoping and screening opinions) pursuant to the Infrastructure (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009. The IPC/MPIU is compelled by Regulation 3(2) and (3) not to grant development consent unless it has first taken the environmental information into consideration and stated in its decision that it has done so. The requirement to furnish an environmental statement with the applica­tion obliges applicants to advertise and consult on the environmental state­ment at the pre-application stage in conjunction with their general consulting obligations. In a similar vein, Part 51 of the United States Regulatory Commission’s NRC Regulations (10 CFR Part 51) also prescribes detailed information on the requirements and content of environmental impact assessments for US new build.

Section 55(2) of the PA 2008 requires the IPC/MPIU to decide whether or not to accept applications for further examination within 28 days of their receipt. Once accepted, the IPC/MPIU must invite affected local authorities to submit local impact reports detailing the likely impact of the proposed development on the authority’s area. This is another opportunity for the environmental impacts to be considered and local issues adequately addressed. As Tromans notes (2010, p. 145), ‘there will be an important relationship to be worked out between the local impact report and the environmental statement produced by. . . the applicant. The impact report may present a quite different perspective on what are regarded as likely and significant impacts’.