Development Consent Order (DCO) requirements for nuclear and electricity transmission projects are being brought under a new government decision-making team from November 2026. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published detailed guidance on Tuesday 27th October explaining how its Post-Consent Unit will work.
The unit will examine and decide applications to discharge post-consent requirements where a DCO specifies that role. It is a new route for DCO requirements, not a replacement for the terms of each made order. Local planning authorities have handled many of those decisions until now. The change affects what happens after consent for major infrastructure has been granted, not the original consent decision.
I would treat this as a practical handover in a tightly prescribed process, not a relaxation of the requirements themselves. DCO requirements can control construction management, landscaping and other detailed matters that must be agreed before particular works proceed. A consented project can still lose months if the right documents are not prepared and assessed.
Which DCO requirements move to the new unit?
The Post-Consent Unit (PCU) will operate within the department’s Energy Infrastructure Planning Delivery Team. It initially covers nuclear and electricity transmission development consent orders, responding to a recommendation from the Nuclear Task Force Review. Ministers intend to consider extending the approach to other technologies later.
That limitation matters. The publication does not put every solar, wind, transport or water infrastructure project into the new system. Nor does it automatically remove every role held by the local planning authority. The wording of each actual DCO determines which authority is responsible for discharging a particular requirement.
Some responsibilities continue with bodies such as the Marine Management Organisation. Agreed exceptions contained in individual orders remain relevant too. Anyone advising on DCO requirements should therefore start with the made order and its certified documents rather than assume a blanket central transfer.
How will DCO requirements be submitted and decided?
The new government procedure for DCO requirements encourages a pre-application discussion with the unit and named consultees. Promoters are expected to maintain a discharge schedule so technical teams know when submissions and decisions will be needed.
A developer submits the discharge application, checklist, plans, evidence and supporting documents through a secure project SharePoint area. The process is not simply an email to the council. The application also identifies the precise DCO provision and explains how the submitted evidence addresses it.
Validation is an administrative check, normally taking up to five working days once the required material is available. It is not approval of the technical merits. Missing documents can pause validation or result in an application being returned for correction.
Consultation normally lasts 20 working days. Consultees are generally expected to seek further information within the first ten working days, although the unit can request information later. A justified request can pause the relevant timetable, so DCO requirements should not be programmed around a guaranteed decision date.
After consultation closes, the unit would usually decide within 15 working days. It can approve or refuse and must explain a refusal. Applications, relevant consultation material and decisions will be published on GOV.UK. Any appeal follows the procedure established by the specific DCO, not an assumed standard planning appeal route.
Do councils lose control of construction impacts?
Decision-making moves to the unit for requirements assigned to it, but councils remain important technical consultees. Local authority officers may still need to assess noise, highways, drainage, ecology and construction management proposals, depending on the order and its named consultees.
The guidance expressly states: Monitoring and enforcement activity will continue to be undertaken by LPAs
. Here, LPAs means local planning authorities. That is a useful distinction between approving details and checking what happens on the ground when work starts. Local planning authorities do not become irrelevant because approval of certain DCO requirements is centralised.
For a project crossing multiple authority boundaries, one central decision-maker may make the discharge process more consistent. Equally, technical issues will still depend on local evidence and the involvement of officers familiar with the affected area. A promoter should identify that expertise early rather than leave it until consultation starts.
What fees apply to DCO discharge applications?
The department says its discharge applications do not currently attract an application fee. It also indicates an intention to introduce fees in the 2027 to 2028 financial year. An intention is not an operative fee schedule and no amount for a future application should be assumed from this announcement.
There is a separate cost-recovery issue. Regulation 12A of the Infrastructure Planning (Fees) Regulations 2010 enables specified public authorities to charge for relevant services, including work connected with a DCO. Charges must comply with the published statement and cannot exceed reasonably incurred costs.
The July 2026 government cost-recovery guidance confirms that prescribed authorities may charge for work across the project process, including post-consent services. The absence of a department application fee does not mean technical input from every other public body will necessarily be free.
Why the new DCO requirements process matters
It is easy to treat a development consent order as the finish line. In practice, the order can contain numerous requirements that shape how and when a scheme is delivered. The new unit shifts the administrative centre of that work, but it does not lower the legal test specified in an individual requirement.
Applicants should review the made order, list every outstanding discharge, identify each approving body and named consultee, then match technical documents to the construction programme. Draft and final management plans need clear version control. A drawing acceptable for design purposes might lack the evidence demanded by a statutory requirement.
Councils should consider their resource implications too. They may no longer issue the final discharge letter on covered requirements, but must still provide timely technical responses, monitor compliance and exercise enforcement functions. The unit’s working-day expectations make early officer availability and coordinated instructions particularly valuable.
Readers unfamiliar with the wider regime can use Planning Geek’s guide to National Policy Statements and nationally significant infrastructure projects. The initial development consent decision is a different stage from the later discharge of requirements addressed here.
When does the Post-Consent Unit start?
The guidance says the unit will become operational in November 2026. It does not give a specific start day or establish that every existing DCO requirement automatically transfers then. Projects should check their own order and obtain procedural confirmation before directing an application to a different authority.
For now, the development is the publication of an operational framework, not a new Act or amendment to every DCO. Its practical test will be whether earlier engagement and central coordination improve the speed of decisions without weakening local scrutiny of construction impacts.
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