Chapter 2: Development plans etc Requirement to assist with plan making Section 100: Requirement to assist with certain plan making Effect
This section amends the PCPA 2004, inserting a new section 39A.
	The new section 39A as a whole places a requirement on specific bodies (‘prescribed public bodies’) to assist in the plan-making process, if requested by a plan-making authority. The section requires ‘prescribed public bodies’ to do everything asked by the plan-making authorities (defined in subsection (4)), so long as it is within reason in relation to plan preparation and revision.
	Subsection (3) contains a power enabling the Secretary of State to make regulations to further specify what a plan-making authority may or may not require ‘prescribed public bodies’ to do and to specify the form and content of any information requested.
	Subsection (6) allows the Secretary of State to prescribe which persons or bodies are on the list of ‘prescribed public bodies’, for example a rail infrastructure operator. As per section 122(3) of the PCPA 2004, the Secretary of State may specify different provision for different prescribed public bodies.
Example
A local planning authority is doing preliminary scenario testing for their new local plan and they are considering an urban extension that requires new access roads and a train station expansion. The local planning authority contacts the relevant bodies to seek their views on the deliverability of these proposals.
The relevant bodies are then required to engage once contacted by the authority. They then must do everything that the local authority ‘reasonably requires’ of it to engage in relation to the preparation of the local plan.
The relevant bodies may need to provide the necessary evidence/information an authority requires to inform their strategic policy decision-making, or a relevant body may be consulted on the deliverability of a proposed scenario.