To ask the Minister for Infrastructure what efforts have been made to ensure that the Northern Ireland Planning Portal will not be offline for longer than the planned three weeks, while the service is moved to the new Portal.

The regional project team has worked closely with a range of stakeholders: the incumbent supplier DXC Technology, the new IT supplier Terraquest Solutions and local government to minimise the impact of moving to a new Planning IT system.

A transition plan has been agreed with relevant planning authorities that sets out the key activities in the run-up to and during the transfer to the new Planning IT System. The team have also completed a number of data transfers from the old Portal to ensure that this process is as short and robust as possible.

While the transition period is estimated to be three weeks, the Northern Ireland Planning Portal will only be closed for one weekend and will then be available to provide read only access until the new System goes live.