AQW 3402/17-22


Mr Andrew Muir
Alliance Party
North Down


Tabled Date: 09/03/2020
Answered On Date: 20/03/2020
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail (i) the average; (ii) the shortest; and (iii) the longest time taken by her Department to determine a planning application within its remit, in each of the last five years.


Answer:
Details of the time taken to determine planning applications within my Department are set out in the attached tables.
Time taken to determine1 Departmental planning applications, 2015/16 to Q2 2019/20
 
Shortest time (weeks)
Average time (weeks)2
Longest time (weeks)
2015/16
2.6
137.2
382.4
2016/17
11.0
125.9
560.2
2017/18
16.8
64.6
403.8
2018/19
86.2
260.9
556.8
2019/20 (up to end of Q2)3
16.2
56.4
177.4
Notes
1. The time to taken to determine (or process) an application is calculated from the date on which an application is deemed valid to the date on which the decision is issued or the application is withdrawn. The only exception is for called in applications, i.e. those initially made to councils where the Minister/Department directs that these should fall to the Department for determination. For called in applications, the time taken to determine (or process) an application is calculated from the date on which the application is called in by the Department to the date on which the decision is issued or the application is withdrawn.
2. The median is used for the average processing time as any extreme values have the potential to inflate the mean, leading to a result that may not be considered as "typical".
3. Figures are provided up to the end of Q2 2019/20 (i.e. end of September 2019) in line with the most recently published Official Statistics. Quarterly estimates for 2019/20 are provisional and will be subject to revision ahead of finalised annual figures, to be published in June / July 2020.