To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail the actions being taken to improve major planning application processing times by local councils.

It is the responsibility of each planning authority including my Department, to monitor their major applications to ensure they are processed in a timely manner. I recognise that performance around major planning applications needs to improve and my Department has been working with key stakeholders to expedite this improvement in a number of ways.

My Department commissioned a report into the role of statutory consultees in the planning process. This report contained a number of recommendations with the aim of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the planning process, particularly with regard to major and “economically sensitive” planning applications. Recommendations from this report are actioned and monitored through a cross governmental Planning Forum.

In addition, my Department is carrying out a review of the Planning Act (NI) 2011, which may identify potential areas for legislative change to help to improve processing times for planning applications. Regular meetings are also held with council heads of planning to discuss matters of policy and practice which may be affecting performance in various areas of the planning system.

My Department has established a Planning Engagement Partnership to look at how to enhance the quality and depth of community engagement in the planning process at both the regional and local planning levels. Also, as part of a collaborative project with 10 councils, we will introduce a new Planning IT system next year to help improve the submission and processing of planning applications.

It is intended that the collective improvements delivered from this work will increase efficiency and effectiveness in the system and deliver improvements around processing times for major planning applications.