Screening requests under the EIA Regulations

An EIA screening request asks the local planning authority to decide, in writing and before you apply, whether your scheme is EIA development. Regulation 6 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 lets any person make that request, and the authority must adopt a screening opinion within three weeks of receiving it unless a longer period is agreed in writing.

Three weeks, for a document that removes the largest single uncertainty in a major application programme. It is the best value request in the planning system and a surprising number of schemes skip it.

When a screening opinion is needed

You need one whenever the development might be EIA development and you do not intend to submit an environmental statement.

Two situations make it near-essential. Where the scheme sits close to a Schedule 2 threshold, because the authority's view and yours may differ. And where any part of the site touches a sensitive area, because the thresholds fall away entirely in that case.

The third reason is procedural. If you apply without an environmental statement and the authority later forms the view that the development is EIA development, it must adopt a screening opinion and, if positive, the application cannot be determined until a statement is submitted. That resets the programme by months. A screening opinion obtained beforehand is on the register and settles the point.

Note that a negative screening opinion is not permanent. A material change to the scheme can reopen it, and an authority can revisit the question if the proposal grows.

Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 development

Schedule 1 lists development for which environmental impact assessment is mandatory. Crude oil refineries, large thermal power stations, waste disposal installations for hazardous waste, and other projects of that scale. If your scheme is in Schedule 1, there is nothing to screen.

Schedule 2 is the one that matters for ordinary development. It works in two columns: a description of the project type in column 1, and thresholds and criteria in column 2. Development is Schedule 2 development if it falls within a column 1 description and either exceeds the column 2 threshold or is located wholly or partly in a sensitive area.

The category most schemes fall under is urban development projects, at paragraph 10(b). Its thresholds are:

Sensitive area is defined in regulation 2 and includes sites of special scientific interest, National Parks, the Broads, World Heritage Sites, scheduled monuments, National Landscapes and European sites. Where the site is partly in one of those, the thresholds do not apply and the development is Schedule 2 regardless of size.

Being Schedule 2 development does not mean EIA is required. It means the question has to be asked.

Information to submit with the request

Regulation 6 sets out what the request must contain, and the three-week clock does not start until it is complete.

1. A plan sufficient to identify the land.
2. A description of the development, including its physical characteristics, any demolition, and its location with particular regard to the environmental sensitivity of the areas likely to be affected.
3. A description of the aspects of the environment likely to be affected.
4. Where available, a description of any likely significant effects resulting from residues and emissions and the production of waste, and of the features and measures proposed to avoid or prevent what might otherwise be a serious adverse effect.

In practice a good request runs to fifteen or twenty pages plus plans, and it argues the case rather than simply describing the scheme. State the Schedule 2 category you consider applies, the threshold position, the constraints on and around the site with their distances, and why the effects will not be of the scale that requires assessment.

Include the mitigation you are committing to, because the authority is entitled to take embedded mitigation into account. What it should not do is treat uncertain, unsecured mitigation as removing an effect, so describe measures that will be designed in rather than measures you hope to condition later.

A request that reads as if it wants a particular answer without giving the authority the material to reach it will come back positive, or come back asking for more information and lose the three-week clock.

How the authority reaches its opinion

The authority applies the selection criteria in Schedule 3: the characteristics of the development, its location, and the type and characteristics of the potential impact.

Characteristics of the development covers size and design, cumulation with other existing and approved development, use of natural resources, waste, pollution and nuisances, risk of major accidents, and risks to human health. Cumulation is the criterion most often underestimated. A scheme of 120 dwellings adjoining a consented 90-unit site is assessed with that neighbour in view.

Location covers the environmental sensitivity of the area, including existing land use, the abundance and regenerative capacity of natural resources, and the absorption capacity of the natural environment, with specific attention to designated sites.

Type and characteristics of impact covers the magnitude and spatial extent, nature, transboundary character, intensity and complexity, probability, expected onset, duration, frequency and reversibility, cumulation with other projects, and the possibility of reducing the impact.

The opinion must be reasoned. An authority giving a positive opinion has to explain which criteria led to it, and one giving a negative opinion has to state the main reasons with reference to the relevant Schedule 3 criteria. A bare conclusion is challengeable.

Timescales and what follows a positive screen

Three weeks from a complete request, extendable only by written agreement. Authorities do ask for extensions, usually where a statutory consultee has been approached, and refusing one rarely helps.

A negative opinion lets you proceed with a normal application. Keep it with the submission and reference it in the covering letter.

A positive opinion means the application must be accompanied by an environmental statement. Three consequences follow immediately. The determination period becomes 16 weeks rather than 13. Publicity and consultation requirements expand. And the statement must be prepared by competent experts, with a statement of their expertise, under regulation 18(5). The Environmental Impact Assessment is a report type where a qualified professional is legally required, and a drafted document is a starting point for that team rather than a substitute for it.

The sensible next step after a positive screen is a scoping request under regulation 15, which fixes what the statement has to cover. Our note on the screening opinion as the first step in EIA sets out how the two relate.

Requesting a direction from the Secretary of State

Where the authority fails to adopt an opinion in time, or adopts one you consider wrong, you can ask the Secretary of State for a screening direction. The direction, once made, binds.

Two points of practice. The Secretary of State will want the same material the authority had, plus the authority's opinion and its reasons, so assemble the file before you write. And a direction takes time, so weigh the delay against the cost of preparing a statement you may not need.

Going to the Secretary of State also puts your reasoning in front of a different reader, which occasionally produces a positive direction where the authority had been minded to give a negative one. Consider that before requesting it on a marginal case.

Recording the outcome for the application file

The opinion or direction goes on Part 1 of the planning register, which is worth knowing because it makes the document public and findable by objectors. Our note on the statutory planning register covers what else must appear there.

Keep three things on your own file: the request as submitted with its date of receipt, the opinion with its reasons, and a note of any scheme changes made since, with an assessment of whether they alter the screening position. That third item is the one that matters when the design develops over eighteen months.

One forward-looking note. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 contains powers to replace environmental impact assessment with Environmental Outcomes Reports. As at September 2026 those provisions have not been brought into force for town and country planning, and the 2017 Regulations continue to apply. Verify the position on legislation.gov.uk before relying on it.

Browse the full set of report types to see what a major application is likely to need alongside the screening work.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.