### Environmental Impact Assessment Reform Bill

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establish a licensing scheme for the performance of Environmental Impact Assessments; to establish federal and devolved teams for the performance of Environmental Impact Assessments; to reform the requirements and impact of Environmental Impact Statements; and to prevent indefinite pauses on construction through a more rigorous initial assessment process.

BE IT ENACTED by The King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-’

Section 1: Amendments to the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017

1. Section 5 (9) of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 is amended to read:

(9) The Secretary of State must make a screening direction under paragraph (6)(a) within 30 days of the Public Consultation Period finishing.

2) Sections 5 (9) (a) and 5 (9) (b) are repealed.

3) Section 6 (2) is amended to read:

(2) A person making a request for a screening opinion in relation to development where an application for planning permission has been or is proposed to be submitted must provide the following in addition to their Environmental Impact Assessor Licence—

4) Section 6 (6) is amended to read:

(6) A relevant planning authority must adopt a screening opinion within 30 days of the Public Consultation Period finishing.

5) Sections 6 (6) (a) and 6 (6) (b) are repealed.

6) Section 7 (1) is amended to read:

(1) A person who pursuant to regulation 6(10) requests the Secretary of State to make a screening direction must submit with the request, in addition to their Environmental Impact Assessor Licence—

7) Section 7 (5) is amended to read:

(5) The Secretary of State must make a screening direction following a request under regulation 5(6)(b) or 6(10) within 30 days of the Public Consultation Period finishing.

8) Sections 7 (5) (a) and 7 (5) (b) are repealed.

9) Section 18 (5) (a) is amended to read:

(a) the developer must ensure that the environmental statement is prepared by competent licenced experts; and

10) Section 19 (6) is repealed.

11) Section 28 (2) is amended to read:

Where the relevant planning authority adopts a screening opinion or scoping opinion, or receives a request under regulation 15(1) or 16(1), a copy of a screening direction, scoping direction, or direction under regulation 63 before an application is made for planning permission or subsequent consent for the development in question, the relevant planning authority must take steps to secure that a copy of the opinion, request, or direction and any accompanying statement of reasons is made available for public inspection at all reasonable hours at the place where the appropriate register (or relevant part of that register) is kept, and copies of those documents must remain so available indefinitely.

12) Section 29 (1) is amended to read:

(1) Where an EIA application or appeal in relation to which an environmental statement has been submitted is determined by a relevant planning authority, the Secretary of State or an inspector, as the case may be, the person making that determination must provide the developer, in addition to their Environment Impact Assessor Licence, with the information specified in paragraph (2).

13) Sections 60, 61, and 62 are repealed.

14) Section 63 (1) (b) is amended to read:

(b) the development comprises or forms part of a development having national defence as its sole purpose, or comprises a development having the response to civil emergencies as its sole purpose, and in the opinion of the Secretary of State compliance with these Regulations would have an adverse effect on those purposes, and a mitigation plan is included within its scope.

Section 2: Environmental Impact Assessor Licences

1. A person may apply for an Environmental Impact Assessor Licence with the Land Commission.
2. No Environmental Impact Assessment will be valid for use by planning authorities unless it is carried out by a licensed assessor.
3. Funding will be allocated for the licensing or hiring of licensed assessors to Natural England, NatureScot, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
4. A person may apply to the Land Commission in a manner prescribed by regulation for an Environmental Impact Assessor Licence.
5. The Land Commission shall make publicly available a register of persons licensed to perform Environmental Impact Assessments.
6. The application shall specify the following:

(a) any relevant academic or professional experience,
(b) all current and previous employers and any other professional connections that may constitute a conflict of interest,
(c) any other information as may be prescribed by regulation.

7) The Land Commission shall render a decision on an application within thirty days of it being made.

8) The Land Commission shall not grant a licence to a person who has been disqualified by the Commission from performing Environmental Impact Assessments, or who has conflicts of interest that the Commission considers irreconcilable to the Land Rights and Principles Statement.

9) The Land Commission may levy sanctions against an assessor who, in its opinion, has committed an offence under this Act.

10) The Land Commission may, at its discretion:

(a) formally censure an assessor for an offence, which will be publicly noted on the registry,
(b) issue a fine against a person for an offence,
(c) direct that a licence be revoked, or
(d) overturn previous Environmental Impact Assessments made by the assessor.

11) No act or omission of the Land Commission shall be interpreted as to deprive any other body of the power to prosecute offences under this Act.

12) The Land Commission shall place a note of each case filed and sanction imposed against an assessor in the public registry required under section 3 (5), unless such case is deemed vexatious by the Commission.

13) Offences which can result in a fine or censure, but not necessarily revocation of a licence include:

(a) lack of due diligence,
(b) revelation of information the assessor reasonably should have observed, or
(c) other happenings that do not prove bad faith on the part of the assessor.

14) Offences that will result in revocation of a licence if proven include:

(a) fraudulent information provided on an Environmental Impact Assessment,
(b) an undisclosed conflict of interest relevant to an Environmental Impact Assessment made by the assessor,
(c) a lack of due diligence that reaches the point of neglect of duties and violates the Land Rights and Principles Statement, or
(d) any other offence the Land Commission believes is disqualifying for an assessor within the scope of the Land Rights and Principles Statement.

15) The Land Commission may decide to overturn an assessor's Environmental Impact Assessments for any offence in sections 13 and 14 if they believe said offence impacted the quality or legitimacy of the assessment.

16) The Land Commission will consider any previous offences on an assessor's Environmental Impact Assessment licence when choosing whether to accept an assessment submitted by them.

17) A person who has had their licence revoked is disqualified from obtaining a new licence.

Section 3: Public Consultation and Appeal of Environmental Impact Assessments

1. When a development order for EIA land is made public, any communities impacted by the decision are entitled to hold a Public Consultation Period.
2. For the purposes of this section, a community may be defined by:

(a) a postcode area which falls into the area in which development is taking place,
(b) the electorate of the local planning authority relevant to the development,
(c) The Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Commission,
(d) the UK or devolved environmental agency with jurisdiction over the area.

3) During this Public Consultation Period, the Government shall make available funds, in a manner prescribed by regulation, for the hiring of a licenced Environmental Impact Assessor to dispute the existing Environmental Impact Assessment if requested.

4) After a period of 30 days, a ballot of the community so defined will be held on whether to endorse the continuation of the development.

5) Should a ballot under Section 3 (4) pass, future appeals regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment will not halt construction, while the appeal is ongoing.

6) Should a ballot under Section 3 (4) fail, permission is revoked unless the Secretary of State provides a direction of exemption that includes a mitigation plan approved by the Land Commission.

7 4) The mitigation plan provided to the Land Commission should seek to ensure the project follows the Land Rights and Principles Statement as best as possible, including demanding efforts to counterbalance any environmental impact caused by the development.

8 5) If the funded assessment in Section 3 (3) disagrees fundamentally with the original assessment the Land Commission will have a period of 14 days to arbitrate and determine which Environmental Impact Assessment is more accurate and will continue to have legal weight.

9 6) The period of time given in Section 3 (8) is not to be counted as part of the 30 day Public Consultation Period.

Section 4: Commencement, Short Title and Extent

1. This bill may be cited as the Environmental Impact Assessment Reform Act 2023.
2. This act extends to the entire United Kingdom.
3. This act will come into force immediately upon receiving Royal Assent in England.
4. This act shall not extend to Scotland until a motion is passed by simple majority of votes cast by the Scottish Parliament resolving that this Act should extend to Scotland.
5. This act shall not extend to Wales until a motion is passed by simple majority of votes cast by the Senedd Cymru resolving that this Act should extend to Wales.
6. This act shall not extend to Northern Ireland until a motion is passed by simple majority of votes cast by the Northern Irish Assembly resolving that this Act should extend to Northern Ireland.

(a) a motion put forward by the Northern Irish Assembly may be subject to the Petition of Concern mechanism as defined under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and may supersede the requirement under this paragraph.

This Bill was authored by the Rt. Hon. /u/NicolasBroaddus, on behalf of His Majesty’s 34th Government.

Opening speech:

Deputy Speaker,

The bill presented today represents an overhaul of how environmental impact assessments are handled in two major ways. As it stands today, there are no professional or ethical requirements or responsibilities that come with performing these assessments, no requirements at all in fact. This has led to countless fraudulent assessments, mostly in the private sector.

To address this, this bill creates a licensing system, handled by the Land Commissions. As the Land Commission has a binding code regarding land usage and environmental protection, that this house ratified, it can act as the legal arbiter of this system. This is efficient as the commission manages the land registry and is able to coordinate the public balloting periods discussed later. However, to prevent a conflict of interest, the responsibility for state employed licensed assessors is given to the relevant environmental agency. This way the same agency is not in charge of any possible licensing disputes over state environmental impact assessments.

The second major thrust of this bill is to cut the red tape surrounding construction delays and pauses from environmental impact assessments. This is a difficult issue to balance on its own, as cutting those restrictions could have devastating consequences. However, I believe that, by establishing the licensing scheme and regulating a largely unregulated profession, we can do this here without undermining environmental protection. As currently stands, the minimum time required for an environmental impact assessment dispute to be resolved is 93 days. There are countless ways to extend this process, by periods of 14 days, 21 days, and so on. These can be repeated or filed by other complainants, drawing the process out indefinitely.

To address this, the process has been streamlined into a single 30 day public engagement and balloting period, with a possible 14 day appeal of the validity of the contested assessment. The entire community that will be impacted by the development will be brought together in a public hearing before the development starts, and given access to funds to hire their own licensed assessor to give a possibly disagreeing assessment. At the end of the period, the community will have a ballot on whether or not to endorse the development. If they endorse it, the project becomes immune to standard construction pauses if there is a future appeal, though a successful appeal would retain its power. If the community votes against the project, it is rejected and requires the pre-existing directive of exemption from the relevant Secretary of State. The state is still able to pursue the project as it could before, and the system is still far more streamlined than originally, however they are required to present and execute a mitigation plan alongside the development. Additionally, while they are not immune to pauses as in the case of a successful ballot, the introduction of the licensing system, the checks against vexatious appeals, and the streamlining of timeline of appeals will still result in a far quicker and more transparent process.

Meta: Lastly, to address my amending of these specific regulations that are past the point of divergence, I consulted with Speaker and they have agreed that this regulation should be considered part of the inherited Brexit legislation.

This reading shall end on Sunday 7th January at 10pm GMT