My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for tabling Amendment 46C and for presenting the case for it and Amendment 46D. In responding to these amendments, I will try not to repeat in detail the arguments that I made against them in Committee but I think it would be helpful if I said a few words about each of them in turn.
The new clause proposed by Amendment 46C sets out a proposal for hearings during the pre-application phase of the infrastructure planning process. As I hope I made clear in Committee, the Planning Inspectorate already offers a pre-application service to developers which can include regular meetings with developers and other interested bodies to discuss the project. I therefore regret that the Government are not convinced by the arguments that formal hearings, even where paid for by developers, are also needed.
I turn now to the question of waivers, as proposed in Amendment 46D. I have noted that the amendment has been somewhat constrained since Committee and now applies specifically to documents that are required to be submitted with an application for development consent. The Government have previously responded to this and, while recognising that this is more focused, we again remain unconvinced that a formal process is needed to achieve what the noble Lord is intending and seeking on behalf of infrastructure developers. Furthermore, the process could potentially undermine the certainty and transparency of the regime. Following changes made to the Planning Act 2008 by the Localism Act 2011, the Secretary of State already has discretion to accept an application that does not fully comply with many of the detailed documentation requirements under the Planning Act, provided that the application is,
“of a standard that the Secretary of State considers satisfactory”.
Based on that explanation, I hope the noble Lord will be minded to withdraw the amendment.