AQW 6645/10

Mrs Naomi Long
Alliance Party
East Belfast

Tabled Date: 07/05/2010
Answered On Date: 19/05/2010
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of the Environment for his assessment of the impact of the re-deployment of Planning Service staff to other parts of the Civil Service on (i) levels of service for the public; (ii) the size of the case load, per officer, within the Planning Service compared to other UK regions; and (iii) the overall cost of re-deployment, including any subsistence payments.

Answer:

The Department is experiencing a financial shortfall of c£16m for 2010-11. The Planning Service element of this shortfall is estimated at £8.3m the bulk of which (£6.4m) relates to a reduction in planning receipts.

The global economic downturn and its impact on the property and housing markets has clearly been a major factor contributing to the sharp fall in planning application numbers and also related fee receipts received by Planning Service. In light of the much reduced volume of planning applications and related fee receipts Planning Service has been considering ways to reduce its operating costs to align staffing levels and costs more closely to work demands and revenue. Significant staff reductions and redeployment of staff is necessary to align staffing levels and costs more closely to work demands and revenue. The Planning Service will therefore reorganise to live within its budget and reprioritise resources to ensure key services to customers can be maintained and impact on the economy from the reduction in staff is minimised.

The current average caseload in the Planning Service during the 2009/10 business year was 180 planning applications for each case officer which is slightly higher than the figure of 150 cases in GB. However, we have no information on the mix of applications in the GB total and so direct comparison may not be appropriate.

The Department is approaching the redeployment of Planning Service staff in line with the standard terms and conditions for dealing with such situations in the NICS. It is too early to estimate the overall costs of this redeployment exercise however, salaries for staff which are redeployed and therefore the cost of redeployment will be borne by the receiving Department.