The Secretary of State for Transport has issued a Written Ministerial Statement that sets a new deadline for the determination of the Lower Thames Crossing DCO application for 4 October 2024.

This is due to the General Election and to allow appropriate time for any new Secretary of State to consider the application, however the Department for Transport will endeavour to issue the decision ahead of the new deadline.

The DCO was due to be determined on 20 June 2024 which is during the Pre-Election period.

The full Written Ministerial Statement can be found here.

Under section 107(1) of the Planning Act 2008, the Secretary of State must make his decision within 3 months of receipt of the Examining Authority’s report unless exercising the power under section 107(3) to extend the deadline and make a Statement to the Houses of Parliament announcing the new deadline. The new deadline for all the above applications is 4 October 2024. This is due to the General Election and to allow appropriate time for any new Secretary of State to consider the applications. The Department will however endeavour to issue decisions ahead of the deadlines above wherever possible.

The decision to set new deadlines is without prejudice to decisions on whether to give development consent for the above applications.