Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, how many (a) gigafactories, (b) laboratories and (c) data centres have opted in to being designated as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

No gigafactories, data centres or laboratories have yet opted into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) consenting process.

Regulations which will enable large-scale data centres to ‘opt in’ to the NSIP consenting process are intended to be laid in Parliament for approval later this year and we anticipate a number of applicants will make use of the process once they are able to do so.

Gigafactories and laboratories can already request to ‘opt in’ to the NSIP consenting regime under existing prescriptions of types of business or commercial projects in the Infrastructure Planning (Business or Commercial Projects) Regulations 2013.