Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what will be the process for obtaining planning permission for a small modular reactor nuclear power station.

Section 15 of the Planning Act 2008 requires that any proposed nuclear power generating station with a capacity of more than 50 megawatts in England and Wales would need to seek development consent from the Secretary of State through the nationally significant infrastructure planning regime. For projects that do not meet that threshold, planning permission would need to be sought under relevant town and country planning legislation. Section 39 of the Wales Act 2017, when fully in force, will (subject to transitional provisions) devolve to Wales the responsibility for planning development consents for nuclear power generating station projects up to and including 350 megawatts. Proposals for such generating stations in Wales over 350 megawatts will still continue to be determined by the Secretary of State.