The UK Government has missed its own timetable for consulting on new national planning policy for data centres, with ministers still unable to say when the long-awaited proposals will appear.

In November 2025, the Government committed to consulting within three months on a dedicated Data Centre National Policy Statement (NPS), intended to establish the national need for major developments and provide greater clarity over planning decisions.

However, in a written parliamentary answer on October 23, AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the draft would be published only ‘in due course’, followed by a public consultation. The original consultation deadline passed in February.

A separate response confirmed the Government is still considering whether data centres should receive Critical National Priority (CNP) status, an option first raised in the November policy paper.

CNP status already applies to certain low-carbon energy infrastructure, giving greater weight to the need for qualifying developments when planning applications are assessed.

Applying a comparable approach to data centres could strengthen the case for approving major projects, although it would not guarantee planning permission or remove environmental safeguards.

The continued uncertainty comes despite Parliament backing the extension of the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime to data centres in November 2025, with the changes taking effect in January 2026.

Developers can now request that nationally significant data centre projects enter the NSIP regime, allowing applications to be determined nationally rather than through the ordinary local planning process.

However, the dedicated policy statement intended to guide those decisions remains unpublished, leaving the Government’s position on giving major data centres additional planning weight unresolved.