Will the Minister confirm why Planning and Environment Decisions Wales does not commission the environmental statements and impact assessments that accompany planning applications from a list of independent consultants and charge the developers accordingly in order to ensure their impartiality?
It is PEDW’s role to deal with planning applications and appeals on behalf of the Welsh Ministers in an independent, impartial and quasi-judicial way. Planning Inspectors robustly assess evidence submitted, including Environmental Statements (ES), in order to reach their decisions or recommendations and it would be wholly inappropriate for them to be involved in commissioning any of the technical documents accompanying an application or appeal. Nevertheless, there are processes that ensure that ES are fit for purpose.
An ES is an objective assessment of the likely impacts of a proposed development on the environment. It is a legal requirement for the environmental statement to be prepared by a person with sufficient expertise to ensure the completeness and quality of the statement. The developer must also consult with NRW and other relevant bodies in the production of an ES. All ES are checked by PEDW to ensure they do outline all likely significant effects on the areas set in the scoping report. Further consultation takes place with NRW and other relevant bodies as part of the appeal/application process. All responses are considered by the Inspector and any disagreements addressed with further information required as necessary and/or matters tested at a Hearing or Inquiry.
Additional benefits arise from requiring the developer to critically assess the quality of their proposals being submitted. It forces the applicant to confront the impacts of their proposals and therefore modify their design or include mitigation measures which reduce those impacts.