Consultation outcome

Planning for new energy infrastructure: revisions to National Policy Statements

From:: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Published: 30 March 2023
Last updated: 22 November 2023 — See all updates

Read the full outcome

Draft National Policy Statements for energy infrastructure: government response

PDF, 591 KB, 62 pages

Detail of outcome

We made a significant number of amendments to the text of the Energy National Policy Statements (NPSs) based on the feedback to this consultation. Responses focused in particular on the definition and scope of the critical national policy criterion, and environmental and community impacts.

As a result the critical national priority criterion, a key revision to these new National Policy statements, has been strengthened and encompasses all low carbon infrastructure.

View the latest National Policy Statements for energy infrastructure.

Government is committed to keeping these National Policy Statements under review and to updating them in 5 years.

Detail of feedback received

We received 157 responses from:

industry
members of the public
other interested parties

and an additional 751 through related campaigns.

Original consultation

Consultation description

Update: 25 May 2023

This consultation for the energy National Policy Statements has been extended and will now close at 11:45pm on Friday 23 June 2023.

Please note that question 7 in the consultation document was inadvertently not included in the online survey. If you have already responded to this consultation, your response is still valid and you do not need to resubmit. However, you may wish to submit an additional response to question 7, if you have not already done so.

If you have not responded to this consultation, you now have until 11:45pm on Friday 23 June 2023 to do so.

For the avoidance of doubt question 7 states:

Draft EN-5 includes a strong starting presumption for overhead lines for electricity networks developments outside nationally designated landscapes, which was consulted on in 2021. Do you agree?

If you have any questions, please contact energyNPS@beis.gov.uk.

The energy National Policy Statements (NPS) set out the government’s policy for the delivery of energy infrastructure and provide the legal framework for planning decisions. They were first designated and published in 2011.

A review of the NPS was announced in the 2020 Energy white paper: Powering our net zero future. This review was to ensure the NPSs were brought up to date to reflect the policies set out in the white paper.

We held a public consultation on the revised NPSs EN1 to EN5 in 2021, and have published a government response. We have strengthened the process for delivering major new energy infrastructure in England and Wales, reinforcing the country’s national priorities regarding energy security, reducing costs, and delivering on net zero, while creating new green jobs and industries for the UK.

Covering renewables, carbon capture and hydrogen, oil and gas pipelines and electricity networks, the updates are expected to speed up the planning process so that low-carbon generation can be brought forward at the right time and in the right places, whilst protecting and enhancing the environment on land and sea and ensuring local views are taken into account.

This consultation is more focused and seeks views on:

clarifying that offshore wind is now a critical national priority, including the related onshore and offshore network infrastructure
to deliver the 50GW of offshore wind including 5GW of floating wind, we need to cut the process time by over half. The government therefore announced it was introducing the offshore wind environmental improvement package to help accelerate deployment of offshore wind, whilst protecting and enhancing the marine environment
strengthening the electricity networks NPS to include more detail on the role of strategic planning of networks, which considers the network as a whole, rather than just individual transmission projects
updating the civil and military aviation and defence interests to reflect the status of energy developments, including offshore wind, and how impacts to civil and military aviation, meteorological radars and other types of defence interests should be managed

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