Planning issues in nuclear projects

Energy National Policy Statement

2009/2010 NPS consultation

National Policy Statements (NPSs) are statutory policy documents prepared and adopted in accordance with the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008), which set out the government's policy on nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). Between late 2009 and early 2010, the government published and consulted on six draft Energy NPSs, which were designed to provide a framework for the Secretary of State (formerly the Infrastructure Planning Commission) when considering development consent applications for NSIPs in the energy field.

Among the documents published were:

•
an overarching Energy NPS (EN-1), and
•
an NPS that sets out specific issues in relation to applications for development consent orders for new nuclear power stations (EN-6)

The NPS documents were subjected to Parliamentary scrutiny and the government consolidated the consultation responses. Final versions of EN-1 and EN-6 were published in July 2011.

See Practice Notes: The planning regime for nuclear new build in England and Wales, Planning policy in England, Permission for nationally significant infrastructure projects and Application procedure for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

Role of the NPS

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