According to the legislation.gov.uk instrument, the Infrastructure Planning (Timetable for Deciding Request for Direction) Regulations 2026 were made on 30 June 2026, laid before Parliament on 3 July 2026 and come into force on 24 July 2026. The regulations create a statutory timetable for ministerial decisions on qualifying requests made under section 35B(1) of the Planning Act 2008. The immediate effect is procedural rather than substantive. The instrument does not change which projects can seek a direction, but it does fix the time available to the Secretary of State to decide whether such a request should be granted.
The explanatory note on legislation.gov.uk states that section 35B directions are used to disapply the requirement for development consent under the Planning Act 2008. That matters because the 2008 Act is the main regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects, and a direction under section 35B can determine whether a proposal remains inside that regime or is dealt with elsewhere in the planning system. For promoters, legal advisers and public authorities, the new regulations are mainly about certainty at the front end of the process. They set out when a decision should be expected, rather than leaving the timetable open-ended.
Regulation 2 sets the default timetable. Where the Secretary of State receives a qualifying request, as defined through section 35D of the 2008 Act, a decision must be made before the end of the primary deadline, defined in regulation 1 as 35 days beginning with the day the request is received. In plain English, the department now has a fixed 35-day window to reach a decision unless it asks for further information. That gives applicants a clearer point for programme planning and reduces uncertainty at this stage of the process.
Regulation 3 changes the timetable where the Secretary of State needs more material before deciding. If the department asks the requestor for information before the initial 35-day period expires, the requestor must provide that material before the secondary deadline, which is 21 days beginning with the day the request for information is made. The regulations then start a new 35-day decision period from the day after either the secondary deadline or the day the information is received, whichever is sooner. The drafting is important because an early response does not lengthen the timetable. Instead, it can bring the final decision date forward because the new clock starts from the earlier trigger.
The territorial extent is wider than England alone but still limited. The instrument extends to England and Wales and, in Scotland, only so far as needed for certain oil or gas cross-country pipelines with one end in England or Wales and the other in Scotland, excluding construction by a gas transporter. That detail will matter only to a narrow set of cross-border infrastructure schemes. Even so, it confirms that the timetable rules are intended to cover the limited Scottish element of projects that otherwise sit within the Planning Act 2008 system.
The legal basis is also tightly aligned. The regulations are made under section 35D of the Planning Act 2008, a power inserted by section 4 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The notes attached to the legislation.gov.uk text state that section 4 itself is brought into force on 24 July 2026 by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026. This means the timetable rules begin on the same day as the enabling power. In administrative terms, the Government has coordinated commencement so that section 35B request handling moves immediately onto a defined statutory footing.
The instrument was signed on 30 June 2026 by Matthew Pennycook, Minister of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, acting on the authority of the Secretary of State. The explanatory note further states that no full impact assessment has been produced because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. That points to a change focused on process rather than on the substance of infrastructure consent policy. Even so, the new deadlines will matter in practice: applicants will need to submit complete requests promptly, and any response to an information request will shape the final date by which a ministerial decision must be issued.