This is a formal notice served by the local planning authority requiring the owner of a property to remedy a breach of planning control, e.g. to demolish an unauthorised building, to require an unauthorised use to cease or to require the conditions on a planning permission to be complied with. It sets out what the alleged breach is, what works are required to remedy the breach as well as the time period within which the works need to be undertaken. An enforcement notice can be appealed up to the day it comes into effect.

Applicants for certain types of development, usually more significant schemes, are required to submit an “environmental statement” accompanying a planning application. This evaluates the likely environmental impacts of the development, together with an assessment of how the severity of the impacts could be reduced.Projects needing environmental impact assessment are listed in Schedule 5 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001. In the case of development which is under the relevant EIA threshold, planning authorities are required under article 103 of the 2001 Regulations to request an EIS where it considers that the proposed development is likely to have significant environmental effects.