Legal status of consultations by e-mail - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
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En cours - juillet 2012
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Dernière modification - Aujourd'hui
Legal status of consultations by e-mail
Development Plan regs require that various documents be 'sent' to DPD bodies. In the case of the Secretary of State, the regs clearly differentiate between hard and electronic copies. However for DPD bodies, it is not clear whether this requirement is discharged by the e-mailing of links (easy), the e-mailing of pdf documents (easy for us but can be a nuisance for the recipient) or the sending of hard copies to all DPD bodies in the post. (a huge waste of resources and an irritation to all concerned - particularly for neighbouring parish councils who never wanted to be consulted in the first place). What have other people done and has anyone got a clear answer out of their Government Office on this point?
As it is the Planning Inspector that you will need to satify about the procedural tests of soundness you may wish to contact PINS. Although regs indicate copies should be sent, the advice we have received is that provided that either PDF or links to a web site are available we will meet the requirements. PINS original view on early SCIs was fairlly hardline - send hard copies - however they seem to be taking a more pragmatic view now. Another example of poorly drafted Regs, with no consideration of the practical implications.
The regs do clarify this is in Section 4 of Part 1 which concerns electronic communications. It appears to say that you can send documents in an electronic format. If you do consult in this way it may be worth checking your file size before sending to ensure they don't block peoples inboxes!
I am very new to all this since we are a new Parish Council but I for one have more room in my inbox than in a filing cabinet. :) Even better if the email has links - as long as the site is reliable. It also allows the recipient to set up forwarding rules so everyone concerned gets to know about it. So let's hope it is legal. It could be argued that once the documents have been sent, electronically or otherwise, the data is set. If links are used the documents on the site could be changed. In some situations this is a good idea but probably not in planning. I have a lot of learning to do but in the meantime I have created a map to help our residents see where the applications are, with links to the application concerned. Let's hope it is legal too. http://baildon.org.uk/maps/planning/
The Electronic Communication Act 2000 (derived from EU Directive) allows the substitution of electronic for paper, with certain clauses applying. The other area to look at would be the Civil Evidence Act 95 (esp. S8 & S9) Another area to look at would be the BIP0008:2004 standard, for legal admisibility and evidential weight. Note that other than electronic contracting, there is a severe shortage of case law around the use of electronic documents.