Consultation display

Purpose of the consultation

The Infrastructure (Wales) Bill (“the Bill”) has been referred to the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee (“the Committee”) for Stage 1 scrutiny of the general principles of the Bill.

 

According to the Welsh Government, the overarching aim of the Bill is to create a unified consenting process for infrastructure projects in Wales detaching consenting from current, largely outdated and inadequate arrangements to a new form of consent, which contains the full range of authorisations required to enable development. The Bill proposes:

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>>> to establish a unified infrastructure consenting process for specified types of major infrastructure both on and offshore (up to territorial seaward boundary), including energy, transport, waste, water and gas projects. The new form of consent will be known as an “infrastructure consent” (“IC”) and will be issued in relation to projects which are prescribed as a “Significant Infrastructure Project” (“SIP”);

>>> to provide that developers must obtain an IC for a SIP. The IC is intended to contain the full range of authorisations required to enable the development to be implemented; and

>>> therefore replace, either fully or partially, a number of existing statutory regimes for the consenting of infrastructure projects and rationalise the number of authorisations required to construct and operate such development into a single consent.

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Further details about the Bill can be found in its accompanying Explanatory Memorandum (PDF 1.5MB)

 

To help inform its scrutiny, the Committee is seeking views on:

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>>> The general principles of the Bill and the need for legislation to deliver the stated policy intention;

>>> The Bill’s provisions, including whether they are workable and will deliver the stated policy intention:

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*** Significant infrastructure projects (Part 1 sections 1 to 18)

*** Requirement for infrastructure consent (Part 2 sections 19 to 26)

*** Applying for infrastructure consent (Part 3 sections 27 to 38)

*** Examining applications (Part 4 sections 39 to 51)

*** Deciding applications for infrastructure consent (Part 5 sections 52 to 59)

*** Infrastructure consent orders (Part 6 sections 60 to 99)

*** Enforcement (Part 7 sections 100 to 120)

*** Supplementary functions (Part 8 sections 121 to 129)

*** General provisions (Part 9 sections 130 to 144)

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>>> Any potential barriers to the implementation of the Bill’s provisions and whether the Bill takes account of them;

>>> The appropriateness of the powers in the Bill for Welsh Ministers to make subordinate legislation (set out in Chapter 5 of Part 1 of the Explanatory Memorandum).

>>> Whether there are any unintended consequences arising from the Bill; and

>>> The financial implications of the Bill (as set out in Part 2 of the Explanatory Memorandum).

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Submitting your views

The Committee would like to invite you to submit written evidence to assist in its consideration of the Bill.

We would like you to submit your views by completing this online form.

 

A downloadable template is available for you to draft your response before submitting it, if you wish. However, please do not submit your response on that template via email. All responses should be submitted via the online form.

The closing date for submission to this consultation is 11 August 2023.

 

Please refer to the Bill page for further details and up-to-date information on the Bill.