{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-inquiries-procedure-england-rules-2000/article-5",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-inquiries-procedure-england-rules-2000/article-5.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2000/1624",
  "legislation_title": "The Town and Country Planning (Inquiries Procedure) (England) Rules 2000",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-inquiries-procedure-england-rules-2000",
  "path": "article/5",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "5",
  "heading": "Procedure where Secretary of State causes pre-inquiry meeting to be held",
  "text": "(1) The Secretary of State shall hold a pre-inquiry meeting—\n(a) if he expects an inquiry to last for 8 days or more, unless he considers it is unnecessary;\n(b) in respect of shorter inquiries, if it appears to him necessary.\n(2) Where the Secretary of State decides to hold a pre-inquiry meeting the following provisions shall apply—\n(a) the Secretary of State shall send with the relevant notice—\n(i) notice of his intention to hold a pre-inquiry meeting;\n(ii) a statement of the matters about which he particularly wishes to be informed for the purposes of his consideration of the application or appeal in question and where another Minister of the Crown or a government department has expressed in writing to the Secretary of State a view which is mentioned in rule 4(2)(c), the Secretary of State shall set this out in his statement;\n(b) the Secretary of State shall send a copy of the statement described in the previous paragraph to the Minister or government department concerned;\n(c) the local planning authority shall publish in a newspaper circulating in the locality in which the land is situated a notice of the Secretary of State’s intention to hold a pre-inquiry meeting and of the statement sent in accordance with paragraph (2)(a)(ii) above; and\n(d) the applicant and the local planning authority shall ensure that within 8 weeks of the starting date 2 copies of their outline statement have been received by the Secretary of State.\n(3) The Secretary of State shall, as soon as practicable after receipt, send a copy of the local planning authority’s outline statement to the applicant and a copy of the applicant’s outline statement to the local planning authority.\n(4) Where rule 4(2) applies, the local planning authority shall—\n(a) include in their outline statement—\n(i) the terms of any direction given together with a statement of the reasons for it; and\n(ii) any view expressed or representation made on which they intend to rely in their submissions at the inquiry; and\n(b) within the period mentioned in paragraph (2)(d) send a copy of their outline statement to the person concerned.\n(5) The Secretary of State may in writing require any other person who has notified him of an intention or a wish to appear at the inquiry to send an outline statement to him, the applicant and the local planning authority and the person shall ensure that they are received by the Secretary of State, the applicant and the local planning authority within 4 weeks of the date of the Secretary of State’s written requirement.\n(6) The pre-inquiry meeting (or, where there is more than one, the first pre-inquiry meeting) shall be held within 16 weeks of the starting date.\n(7) The Secretary of State shall give not less than 3 weeks written notice of the pre-inquiry meeting to—\n(a) the applicant;\n(b) the local planning authority;\n(c) any person known at the date of the notice to be entitled to appear at the inquiry; and\n(d) any other person whose presence at the pre-inquiry meeting appears to him to be desirable,\nand he may require the local planning authority to take, in relation to notification of the pre-inquiry meeting, one or more of the steps which he may under rule 10(6) require them to take in relation to notification of the inquiry.\n(8) The inspector—\n(a) shall preside at the pre-inquiry meeting;\n(b) shall determine the matters to be discussed and the procedure to be followed;\n(c) may require any person present at the pre-inquiry meeting who, in his opinion, is behaving in a disruptive manner to leave; and\n(d) may refuse to permit that person to return or to attend any further pre-inquiry meeting, or may permit him to return or attend only on such conditions as he may specify.\n(9) Where a pre-inquiry meeting has been held pursuant to paragraph (1), the inspector may hold a further pre-inquiry meeting and he shall arrange for such notice to be given of a further pre-inquiry meeting as appears to him necessary; and paragraph (8) shall apply to such a pre-inquiry meeting.\n(10) If the Secretary of State requests any further information from the applicant or the local planning authority at the pre-inquiry meeting, they shall ensure that 2 copies of it have been received by him and a copy has been received by any statutory party within 4 weeks of the conclusion of the pre-inquiry meeting and the Secretary of State shall, as soon as practicable after receipt, send a copy of the further information received from the applicant to the local planning authority and a copy of the further information received from the local planning authority to the applicant.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "superseded",
      "affecting": "uksi/2002/1223",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (Major Infrastructure Project Inquiries Procedure) (England) Rules 2002"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000/1624/article/5",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:08:19.097676+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}