AQW 17380/22-27

Miss Michelle McIlveen
Democratic Unionist Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 24/10/2024
Answered On Date: 08/11/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure whether he intends to review the target processing times for planning authorities in relation to regionally significant, major and local planning applications, given the performance of the majority of statutory consultees in meeting their target times for a responses over the last seven years.

Answer:

There are multiple interrelated factors in the operation of the development management process, not least of which is adequacy of resources available to the key delivery bodies, which currently impact statutory consultee and planning application performance.

The ongoing planning improvement work being led by my Department in collaboration with local government seeks to address these challenges across a number of fronts, in order to maximise improvement to the effectiveness and efficiency of the planning system. Whilst I am not considering a review of development management processing targets at this time, as the planning improvement actions and measures need time to take full effect and the impact and outcomes in relation to performance more fully understood, it may be appropriate to revisit this position at a later stage.