The Project is currently in Examination. Examination started on 28 January 2025 following the conclusion of the Preliminary Meeting on 27 January 2025 and is expected to conclude by 28 July 2025.
Open Floor Hearing 1 was held on 28 January 2025 and Issue Specific Hearing 1 and Issue Specific Hearing 2 took place during the first two weeks of April. An Accompanied Site Inspection took place on 1 April 2025.
The week beginning 16 June 2025 has also been reserved for further Issue Specific Hearing(s), Compulsory Acquisition Hearing(s) and Open Floor Hearing(s), if required.
Transcripts, recordings and summary notes are available via the Project page on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
The Planning Inspectorate’s Rule 8 letter sets out the Examination timetable. It also includes:
For more information, please refer to the Rule 8 letter, in which the full Examination timetable is provided, and register to receive Project updates directly from the Planning Inspectorate here.
The overriding aim of an Examination is to ensure that issues are proportionately, and reasonably, considered.
The examination of applications is principally on the basis of written submissions, supplemented where necessary by hearings held in public, either in-person, virtually, or a blend of the two.
Inspectors assigned by the Planning Inspectorate (known as the Examining Authority or ‘ExA’) have held the Preliminary Meeting and subsequently set the timetable for Examination, as described above.
Examination will take up to six months and should conclude by the end of July 2025.
Following the close of Examination, the Project will enter the Recommendation stage, during which the Planning Inspectorate has three months to prepare a report and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. The Project then enters the Decision stage, during which the Secretary of State has a further three months to make a decision as to whether to grant the Project development consent.
Once a decision has been issued by the relevant Secretary of State, there is a six-week period in which the decision may be challenged in the High Court. This process of legal challenge is known as Judicial Review.
If granted development consent, we currently anticipate phased construction taking a maximum of five years, beginning with pre-construction works expected to take place from 2027.
North Falls is aiming to be operational by the end of the decade.
The Project’s Development Consent Order (DCO) application was submitted on 26 July 2024 and accepted for Examination by the Planning Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, on 22 August 2024. Following which, the Project entered the Pre-examination stage.
The Pre-examination stage included the following activity:
• Receipt of Relevant Representations by the Planning Inspectorate: This process concluded on 18 October 2024. You can view the Relevant Representations submitted by Interested Parties here. You can read more about Relevant Representations and why they are important in paragraph four of the government’s guidance on the Pre-application stage.
• Identification of Interested Parties and affected persons: This process concluded on 18 October 2024.
• Appointment of the Examining Authority: The Examining Authority (ExA) was appointed on 13 September 2024. This was confirmed by the publishing of a Rule 4 letter under sections 61 and 65 of the Planning Act 2008.
• Initial assessment of principal issues by the Examining Authority: These were included in the Rule 6 letter issued on 10 December 2024.
• Holding a Preliminary Meeting: This took place on 27 January 2025. You can watch a recording of the Preliminary Meeting here.
All of the Project’s application documents can be viewed via the documents tab of the Project page on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
