Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the High Speed Rail (West Midlands – Crewe) (Planning Appeals) (Written Representations Procedure) Regulations 2021 and come into force on 25th March 2021.

Interpretation and notices, etc.

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the High Speed Rail (West Midlands – Crewe) Act 2021, and “Schedule 17” means Schedule 17 to the Act;

“the appellant” means the nominated undertaker( 2);

“approval” means an approval or agreement under Part 1 of Schedule 17;

“authority” means the relevant planning authority for the purposes of Schedule 17;

“electronic transmission” means a communication transmitted—

and in this definition “electronic communication network” has the same meaning as in section 32(1) (meaning of electronic communications networks and services) of the Communications Act 2003( 3);

“in writing” includes electronic transmission in written form;

“request” means a request for approval under the planning permission deemed to be granted by section 17(1) of the Act;

“starting date” means the date stated in the written notice under regulation 6(a); and

“third party” means any person who has been notified or consulted in accordance with Schedule 17 about a request, or has submitted representations to the authority about that request.

(2) Any notice, notification, questionnaire, statement or representation submitted pursuant to these Regulations must be in writing.

(3) Where—

(a) any notice of appeal is given under paragraph 23 of Schedule 17,

(b) any notice is served pursuant to regulation 7(1),

(c) any questionnaire or statement is submitted or copied pursuant to regulation 8, or

(d) any representations are submitted or copied pursuant to regulations 7, 9 or 10,

which makes reference to another document, a copy of that document (or of the relevant part of it) must be submitted, served or copied (as the case may be) in a like manner and within the period specified for the submission, service or copying of the document mentioned in sub-paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d).

Application

3.  These Regulations apply to an appeal which is made under paragraph 23 of Schedule 17, and which is not the subject of a direction made pursuant to paragraph 26(1) of that Schedule.

Services of Notices, etc

4.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), notices, notifications, questionnaires, statements or representations required to be submitted or copied by these Regulations may be sent—

(a) by post; or

(b) by electronic transmission.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) to (5), where a notice, notification, questionnaire, statement or representation required to be submitted or copied for the purposes of these Regulations is submitted or copied by electronic transmission, the requirement will be taken to be fulfilled where the recipient of the notice or representation to be transmitted has given consent in writing to the use of electronic transmission.

(3) Where the recipient of a notice, notification, questionnaire, statement or representation submitted or copied by electronic transmission notifies the sender within 7 days of receipt that the recipient requires a paper copy of all or any part of that notice or representation, the sender must provide such a copy as soon as is reasonably practicable.

(4) A person may revoke consent to the use of electronic transmission by giving notice in writing to that effect.

(5) Such a revocation is final and will take effect on the date specified by the person in the notice but that date must not be less than 7 days after the date on which the notice is given.

Notice of appeal

5.  Notice of appeal under paragraph 23(1) of Schedule 17 must be given to the appropriate Ministers and the authority in the form prescribed in Schedule 1( 4).

Notice of receipt of appeal

6.  The appropriate Ministers must, as soon as reasonably practicable after receipt of the notice of appeal, notify the appellant and the authority of—

(a) the date from which the process for deciding the appeal is taken to start;

(b) the reference number allocated to the appeal;

(c) the address of the site to which the appeal relates; and

(d) the address to which written communications to the appropriate Ministers about the appeal are to be sent.

Notice to, and representations by, third parties

7.—(1) The authority must, within a period of 7 days beginning with the starting date, serve notice on all third parties informing them of the appeal.

(2) A notice under paragraph (1) must—

(a) summarise the request to which the appeal relates, and the grounds of appeal;

(b) contain the information specified in regulation 6;

(c) inform third parties that they may, within a period of 21 days beginning with the starting date, submit representations to the appropriate Ministers in respect of the appeal;

(d) state that the appropriate Ministers will copy those representations to the appellant and to the authority;

(e) state that copies of any representations already submitted to the authority about the request (other than representations which were not taken into account because the maker requested they be treated as confidential) will be sent by the authority to the appropriate Ministers and the appellant.

(3) A third party may submit representations in respect of the appeal to the appropriate Ministers within a period of 21 days beginning with the starting date.

(4) The authority must send a copy of the representations referred to in paragraph (2)(e) to the appropriate Ministers and the appellant.

(5) The appropriate Ministers must, on receipt of representations made pursuant to paragraph (3), at the same time send a copy of them to the appellant and to the authority.

Submission of questionnaire and statement by the authority

8.—(1) The authority must, within a period of 14 days beginning with the starting date, submit to the appropriate Ministers a completed questionnaire in the form prescribed in Schedule 2.

(2) The authority must at the same time send a copy of that questionnaire to the appellant.

(3) If the authority wishes to submit a statement in addition to the questionnaire mentioned in paragraph (1), it must—

(a) within a period of 14 days beginning with the starting date, serve notice on the appropriate Ministers and on the appellant of its intention to submit such a statement; and

(b) within a period of 21 days beginning with the starting date, submit the statement to the appropriate Ministers, at the same time sending a copy of it to the appellant.

Representations by the appellant and by the authority

9.—(1) The appellant may submit to the appropriate Ministers representations in response to—

(a) the questionnaire copied to it pursuant to regulation 8(2); and

(b) any statement copied to it pursuant to regulation 8(3)(b).

(2) Representations pursuant to paragraph (1)(a) must be sent within a period of 7 days beginning with the date the authority is sent the copy of the questionnaire, and those pursuant to paragraph (1)(b) within a period of 7 days beginning with the date the authority sent the copy of the statement.

(3) Any representations submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) must be dated and submitted to the appropriate Ministers on the date they bear, and the appellant must at the same time send a copy of them to the authority.

(4) The appellant and the authority may submit to the appropriate Ministers representations in response to any third party representations submitted to those Ministers pursuant to regulation 7(2)(c).

(5) Representations pursuant to paragraph (4) must be submitted within 7 days of receipt by the appellant or the authority (as the case may be) of the copy of the third party representations.

Final representations in respect of new matters

10.—(1) Where the appellant submits representations pursuant to regulation 9(1), and those representations raise a new matter, the authority may, within a period of 14 days beginning with the date the copy of the appellant’s representations is sent pursuant to regulation 9(3), submit to the appropriate Ministers final representations in respect of that new matter.

(2) Where the authority submits final representations to the appropriate Ministers, at the same time the authority must send a copy of those representations to the appellant.

Allowing further time

11.  The appropriate Ministers may in a particular case give directions setting later time limits than those prescribed by these Regulations.

Power of determiner

12.—(1) In this regulation—

“representations” include any questionnaire or statement submitted or to be submitted by the appellant or authority; and

“the determiner” means the appropriate Ministers or the person appointed to determine the appeal pursuant to paragraph 24 of Schedule 17, as the case may be.

(2) The determiner may, at any time after the expiry of—

(a) a period of 7 days beginning either with the date the authority sent the appellant a copy of its questionnaire or, where the authority submits a statement pursuant to regulation 8(3), the date the authority sent the appellant a copy of that statement; or

(b) where applicable, the period of 14 days mentioned in regulation 10,

whichever is the later, take a decision, taking into account only those representations and supporting documents as were submitted before the expiry of that period.

(3) Where no representations are submitted within the period mentioned in regulation 7(2)(c), the determiner may take a decision if—

(a) it appears to the determiner that sufficient material has been submitted to enable the determiner to reach a decision on the merits of the case; and

(b) notice has been given by the determiner to the appellant and to the authority of the determiner’s intention to proceed to a decision notwithstanding that no representations have been submitted within that period.

Regulation 5

SCHEDULE 1 Notice of Appeal

Regulation 8

SCHEDULE 2 Appeal Questionnaire

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The High Speed Rail (West Midlands – Crewe) Act 2021 makes provision for the nominated undertaker to make requests for planning approval to the relevant planning authorities. Schedule 17 to the Act provides that the nominated undertaker may appeal to the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in certain circumstances against the decision of such an authority.

These Regulations prescribe the form of the notice of appeal (regulation 5) and a form of questionnaire to be completed by the authority (regulation 8).

The Regulations also provide for the notice of appeal to be served on the authority and on relevant third parties (regulations 6 and 7 respectively), and specify time limits for the submission of representations and any supporting documentation (regulations 7 to 10). Regulation 11 allows the Secretaries of State to grant additional time for the submission of representations. Regulation 12 provides for determination of the appeal to proceed taking account of only material submitted within the relevant time limit, and also enables determination to proceed in the absence of representations where that time limit has expired.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on business, charities or the voluntary sector is foreseen.

The Explanatory Memorandum for this instrument is available alongside these Regulations atwww.legislation.gov.uk.