Regulatory Other

On 26 March 2026, the Planning Inspectorate’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) page for the North Falls Offshore Wind Farm recorded a key regulatory development in the project’s Development Consent Order (DCO) decision process. The update states that the Secretary of State has decided to reset the statutory deadline for determining the North Falls application to 14 May 2026. This represents a formal change to the legally mandated decision timetable under the Planning Act 2008, moving the project’s decision deadline to a new specified date within the ongoing ‘decision’ stage of the NSIP process. The project page explicitly notes that the decision stage is in progress and that the date set for this to be completed is now 14 May 2026. To implement this change in accordance with statutory requirements, a statement confirming the new decision deadline has been made to Parliament under section 107(7) of the Planning Act 2008, and the update provides a link to that statement. In addition, the page records that a Written Ministerial Statement was made in the House of Lords on the same afternoon announcing the extension, underscoring the formal parliamentary transparency requirements associated with altering NSIP decision deadlines. Together, these actions confirm that the Secretary of State has exercised their power to extend and reset the statutory decision deadline for the North Falls DCO application, while the application itself remains at the decision stage awaiting a final determination by the new deadline date.