Regulatory Other

Outer Dowsing’s official project history records that its Development Consent Order (DCO) application was accepted in April 2024. This acceptance marked the formal start of the statutory examination process for the 1.5 GW offshore wind farm under the UK’s nationally significant infrastructure planning regime. Acceptance by the Planning Inspectorate confirmed that the application documentation, including the Environmental Assessment and supporting consent documents prepared up to 2024, met the required standards to be examined. It represented a key regulatory gate, following several years of preparatory activity including geotechnical and other surveys carried out onshore and offshore between 2022 and 2024, as well as multiple rounds of consultation with local communities. Once the DCO application was accepted, the project progressed into an examination phase that subsequently concluded in April 2025, culminating in a recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate and, later, consent being granted by the UK Government in February 2026. The April 2024 acceptance milestone therefore sits at the transition between development and formal determination of the Outer Dowsing project. It signalled regulatory confidence that the application was sufficiently robust to proceed, and provided the procedural basis for detailed scrutiny of project impacts, stakeholder feedback and proposed mitigation measures as the scheme moved toward consent.