Guidance

Working with the Coal Authority on nationally significant infrastructure projects in coalfield areas

Published 30 July 2024

The Planning Act (2008) created a new regime of development consent for certain types of nationally significant infrastructure. These are:

• major energy projects
• railways
• ports
• major roads
• airports
• water and waste projects

Developers can also take the most significant business and commercial projects through this route if they wish.

The Coal Authority is a statutory consultee in the planning process.  Statutory consultees are bodies that must be notified and consulted in relation to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) applications and play an important role in ensuring that their areas of expertise are reflected within development proposals.

The Coal Authority, like all prescribed consultees, has an important role to play in the pre-application process.

The Coal Authority encourages applicants to begin pre-application discussions at the inception of any new project and prior to its submission to the Planning Inspectorate by making use of our planning advice service, which is a discretionary service charged at cost recovery rates.

Further information on this service can be found at Pre-application advice for developing on the coalfield - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You do not need to use our planning advice service, but it gives access to more detailed advice at a very early stage of the project process.

Early consultation with the Coal Authority is important because it helps to ensure a clear understanding of the coal mining features present and any associated land stability risks posed to the project.

It enables developers to consider the impacts of past coal mining activity, consequential changes in design or layout and to ensure that relevant land stability and ground condition assessments are undertaken.

The purpose of the NSIP process is to simplify and speed up planning consent while reducing the need for separate consents, enabling decisions to be taken faster. Applications are submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.

Once the Planning Inspectorate has completed its process, a recommendation is put to the relevant Secretary of State who makes a final decision on the Development Consent Order (DCO).

The government’s Planning Portal website gives further information on the process.

1. Statutory consultee cost recovery 

In 2024 the Coal Authority, in its role of statutory consultee in the planning process, was granted powers under The Infrastructure Planning (Fees) Regulations 2010 to recover costs incurred in providing services to promoters of DCO projects brought forward under the NSIP regime.

We are commencing recovery of costs from 1 August 2024.

The Coal Authority has powers under the Infrastructure Planning (Fees) Regulations 2010 (as amended) to charge for our services in relation to any advice, information or other assistance (including a response to a consultation) provided in connection with:

• an application or proposed application, for an order granting development consent
• an application or proposed application to make a change to, or revoke, such an order
• any other prescribed matter relating to NSIPs, including both statutory and non-statutory work

For new schemes we will engage with the promoters or developers to notify them of the scope of our services and costs to be recovered. These will be set out in writing, on a project by project basis, for those schemes received from 1 August 2024. 

For existing schemes, in travel through the NSIP process before 1 August 2024, we will continue to provide comments without cost recovery.

Further guidance on the introduction and application of these new powers to recover costs is published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

2. Fees

Our fees will be based on cost recovery rates only.  For the initial pre-application stage, a half day cost recovery rate will be charged. This includes:

• assessment of scheme
• review of information available
• capturing the full spatial extent of the project site into our geographic information system
• interrogation of our data and formal written confirmation of whether coal mining features will impact the scheme

This will be based on our charge out rates at the time of the work being undertaken. 

If your project is so large and complex that our initial comments cannot be provided within the half day allocated, we will charge a standard hourly rate for any extra time taken.

All other work on the project at its various stages through the process will be charged at cost recovery rates. 

You will be given an estimation of our costs and how they have been calculated in a draft quotation.

Once the work has been completed we will provide a final invoice for the exact amount payable, with a specified period in which to pay. 

If the final cost is likely to be significantly different from the estimated cost the developer will be notified in good time and given an explanation for an updated estimate.

All enquiries on our involvement with the NSIP process and our fees charged for advice should be emailed to NSIPsubmissions@coal.gov.uk