Our Three Questions to PINS Q1. Do community organisations in host communities and other Interested and Affected Parties of proposed NSIP Projects, in this case the Rampion 2 coastal wind farm proposal, have access to Terms of Reference for Local Impact Reports that local authorities are invited to prepare; recognising that PINS Advice is that Councils should start the LIR work during the pre-application stage and we wish to provide inputs. If Councils feel no urgency or obligation to share these TOR (as in our case) can PINS help encourage them to do so in the interest of transparency and rigour in the consent process? Or does PINS advise we must use an FOI Request - a last resort. Q2. When is the Applicant’s Report on the pre-application Consultation released to Councils and made available to Interested Parties and the general Public? Are we correct in assuming the Applicant's Consultation Report will only be made public if /when the Application is accepted for Examination by PINS? Q3. What are the accepted Adequacy of Consultation criteria and how can interested and affected parties offer input on how they are applied? And would any adequacy of consultation statements giving reasons and evidence prepared by CSOs and other interested and affected parties be entertained by PINS, if they followed the PINS guidance to local authorities on preparing such adequacy statements?

Thank you for your email of 12 February 2022. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. The Rampion 2 Offshore Wind Farm project is currently at the ‘Pre-application’ stage of the process and is due to be submitted to the Inspectorate in Quarter 3 2022. The Pre-application consultation process is entirely led by the Applicant, Rampion Extension Development Limited, who are responsible for ensuring that they comply with the legislative requirements surrounding consultation which are set out in s49(2) of the Planning Act 2008. The Applicant carried out statutory consultation between 14 July and 16 September 2021 and has also reopened formal consultation between the 7 February to 11 April 2022. Information on this and the documents can be found on the consultation section on the Applicant’s website. In response to your question (Q1), Local authorities should set out clearly their Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Local Impact Report (LIR). The LIR should be used by local authorities as the means by which their existing body of local knowledge and evidence on local issues can be fully and robustly reported to the Examining Authority. Please note that the TOR is entirely the Council’s responsibility and not something that the Inspectorate gets involved in so please continue to communicate with the Councils regarding their LIR. In regard to your question (Q2), in accordance with section 37 of PA2008, the Applicant must submit a Consultation Report with the application. This Consultation Report should set out the Applicant’s Pre-application consultation processes, a summary of the relevant responses to its consultation and how it has taken account of responses received in developing the application. Provided the Applicant agrees, the Planning Inspectorate will publish the Application for development consent with all its associated documentation on the National Infrastructure website as soon as practicable after its receipt (including the Consultation Report). In the Acceptance period (i.e the 28 days following the formal submission of an application) the Planning Inspectorate will review the application documents, including the evidence provided in the Consultation Report, against the statutory tests set out in s55 of the PA2008. In response to question (Q3), as soon as we receive the Application, the Planning Inspectorate will invite the host and neighbouring local authorities to review the Applicant’s the Consultation Report and submit an ‘Adequacy of Consultation Representation’. This Adequacy of Consultation Representation means a representation about whether the Applicant has complied, in relation to the proposed application, with its duties under sections 42, 47 and 48 of PA2008 relating to consultation and publicity. I would advise you that, during the pre-application period, you continue make your comments directly to the developer. Please note that the Inspectorate is unable to consider representations about the merits of any application until it is accepted for Examination. If you feel your comments are not being taken into account by the Applicant, may I advise you to write to the relevant local authority, West Sussex County Council/ Arun District Council, and set out why you think the Applicant is failing to conduct its consultation properly. Your comments should be taken into account when the local authority sends the Inspectorate its comments on whether the Applicant has fulfilled its statutory consultation duties. If you have any further queries about the National Infrastructure process there are suite of informative Advice Notes attachment 1 on the National Infrastructure website and the Frequently asked questions page. You may also wish to sign up for case updates on the National Infrastructure project page for Rampion 2 Offshore Wind Farm as whenever anything is published or update on the page, such as an update on the submission date or notes of project update meetings we have with the Applicant you will receive a notification email.