Summary and Background
2.The Act reforms how infrastructure is consented in Wales. It establishes a unified infrastructure consenting process called an Infrastructure Consent for specified types of major infrastructure both onshore and offshore, called Significant Infrastructure Projects. These, in the main, comprise of energy, transport, waste, water and gas projects. The Infrastructure Consent replaces, either fully or partially, a number of existing statutory regimes for the consenting of Significant Infrastructure Projects and rationalises the number of authorisations required to construct and operate a Significant Infrastructure Project into a single consent.
3.A consultation paper, Changes to the consenting of infrastructure: Towards establishing a bespoke infrastructure consenting process in Wales, was published on 30 April 2018 and sets out the main principles of the Act. The consultation closed on 23 July 2018 and the Government’s response to the consultation was issued in November 2018(1). The responses to the consultation were used to inform development of the Act.
4.The Act contains 148 sections arranged in 9 Parts, and 3 Schedules.