Screening opinion: the first step in EIA
A screening opinion settles whether a scheme needs an environmental statement. Getting it early costs three weeks and can save a year of assessment work.
A screening opinion is the local planning authority's formal answer to one question: does this development need an environmental statement. It costs three weeks and a request letter, and it settles the largest single variable in the programme and budget of a major scheme.
The framework sits in the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. Two schedules define what is caught, a third sets the criteria for judging the borderline cases, and everything else follows from where your proposal lands.
This is general guidance rather than legal advice.
What a screening opinion decides
It decides whether the proposal is EIA development. Nothing else.
If the answer is no, a negative screening opinion goes on the file and the application proceeds as an ordinary one, supported by whatever topic reports the validation list requires. If the answer is yes, the application must be accompanied by an environmental statement, the determination period extends to sixteen weeks, and publicity requirements change.
The opinion binds the authority for the proposal as described. Change the scheme materially afterwards, particularly by increasing its scale, and the screening question reopens.
Schedule 1 against Schedule 2
Schedule 1 lists development where assessment is mandatory. Large installations, long stretches of infrastructure, waste facilities above stated capacities. If the proposal is in Schedule 1, screening is a formality.
Schedule 2 is where the work is. It lists descriptions of development with applicable thresholds in a second column, and the regulations catch a proposal where it meets a description and either exceeds the threshold or lies wholly or partly in a sensitive area. Meeting that test does not mean assessment is required. It means the authority has to consider whether the likely environmental effects reach the level of significance the regulations set.
The sensitive area point catches people out. A small scheme well below the threshold, sitting partly inside a National Landscape or next to a site of special scientific interest, needs screening on its effects rather than on its size.
| Category | What it means | Screening outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule 1 | Listed development types, no threshold test | Assessment always required |
| Schedule 2, above threshold | Meets description and exceeds threshold | Screened on the significance of likely effects |
| Schedule 2, in a sensitive area | Meets description, any scale, sensitive location | Screened on the significance of likely effects |
| Neither | Outside both schedules | Not EIA development |
The Schedule 3 selection criteria
Where a judgement is needed, Schedule 3 sets the criteria the authority must apply. They fall into three groups.
The characteristics of the development: its size and design, cumulation with other existing or approved development, use of natural resources, waste production, pollution and nuisance, risks of major accidents and risks to human health.
The location: existing and approved land uses, the quality and regenerative capacity of natural resources, and the absorption capacity of the natural environment, with particular attention to wetlands, coastal zones, nature reserves, protected areas, densely populated areas and landscapes of historical, cultural or archaeological importance.
The characteristics of the potential effects: their magnitude and spatial extent, nature, transboundary character, intensity and complexity, probability, expected onset, duration, frequency and reversibility, and the possibility of reducing them.
Cumulation deserves attention. A scheme judged alone may screen out, while the same scheme alongside two consented neighbours does not. Identify the other development yourself, because if the authority finds it later the opinion is likely to change.
Requesting an opinion and what to send
The regulations set out what a request must contain, and requests are rejected as invalid far more often than they are refused on merit.
- A plan sufficient to identify the land.
- A description of the development, including its physical characteristics, its scale and its location.
- A description of the aspects of the environment likely to be affected to a material degree.
- A description of the likely effects and their significance, so far as the information is available.
- Any other information or representations you wish the authority to take into account.
Write the description of effects honestly. A request that says there will be no effects, on a site with a watercourse and a listed farmhouse, invites a positive opinion because the authority cannot see that the issues were considered. Effects on air quality deserve their own paragraph where the site sits in or near an Air Quality Management Area, and landscape effects usually need at least an outline of what a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment would cover.
Screening out with mitigation and its limits
The regulations permit the authority to take into account features of the development and measures envisaged to avoid or prevent what would otherwise be significant adverse effects on the environment.
That is real, and it is narrower than developers hope. The measures have to be sufficiently certain, integral to the scheme rather than bolted on, and capable of being secured by condition or obligation. Reducing the height of a building is a feature of the development. Promising a landscape scheme to be agreed later is not.
Screening out on mitigation is also the most challenged form of opinion, because objectors argue that the assessment has been done informally without the publicity the regulations require. If the mitigation is doing heavy lifting, an environmental statement may be the safer route.
What follows a positive screening opinion
If the scheme is EIA development, the next step is usually a scoping opinion, which asks the authority to confirm the topics and methods the environmental statement will cover. Scoping is optional and almost always worth doing, because it fixes the assessment scope with consultees before the surveys are commissioned.
The statement itself must be prepared by competent experts, and must be accompanied by a statement of the expertise used. An Environmental Impact Assessment is one of the report types where professional input is legally required, so any structured draft is a starting point for those experts rather than a replacement for them.
Timing the request
Screening early is nearly always right. The three week period is short, the request costs little to prepare, and the answer changes the programme by months. Requests made after the application is submitted work too, and they leave the scheme exposed in the meantime to an objector arguing that assessment was required.
Where a screening opinion goes wrong
Three failure modes recur.
The first is describing the development too narrowly, so that the opinion covers less than the scheme that is later submitted. The second is ignoring cumulation with neighbouring consents. The third is a bare opinion with no reasoning, which is the ground objectors most often use in a challenge, since the authority has to give reasons for its conclusion.
And there is an honest uncertainty here that nobody should paper over. Significance is a judgement, and two competent authorities can reach different views on the same borderline scheme. Where the margin is fine, ask early, ask in writing, and keep the reasoning on the file.
Work out which technical reports the scheme will need alongside the screening request. You can enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site is likely to need.
PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.
Frequently asked questions
What is a screening opinion?
A written decision by the local planning authority stating whether a proposed development is EIA development, meaning development whose likely environmental effects reach the level of significance that requires an environmental statement. It can be requested before an application is submitted, and it binds the authority when the application arrives, subject to any later change in the proposal.
How long does a screening opinion take?
Three weeks from a valid request, unless the authority and the applicant agree a longer period. Requests fail on validity more often than on merit, usually because the plan, the description of the development or the description of likely effects is missing. Send the full information listed in the regulations with the request.
What is a sensitive area for screening purposes?
The regulations define it, and the list includes sites of special scientific interest, National Parks, National Landscapes, World Heritage Sites, scheduled monuments and European protected sites. Where a Schedule 2 proposal falls in or partly in one of these, the thresholds do not apply and the development is screened on its likely effects.
Can mitigation be taken into account at screening?
Yes, within limits. The authority may take into account features of the development and measures envisaged to avoid or prevent adverse effects that would otherwise reach that level of significance. Those measures have to be certain, capable of being secured, and integral to the scheme. Vague promises to mitigate later do not screen a scheme out.
What if I disagree with the screening opinion?
You can ask the Secretary of State for a screening direction, which takes precedence over the authority's opinion. Screening opinions are also amenable to judicial review, which objectors have used successfully where the reasoning was inadequate. In most cases a properly evidenced request, resubmitted, is faster than either route.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.