§ Mr. Proctorasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will categorise the career backgrounds of planning inspectors appointed to his Department in each of the last five years, as between those with previous experience of planning and related matters, and those with none; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneAll planning inspectors appointed to my Department over the last five years had experience of planning or related matters.
Candidates for appointment as inspector must have had prior experience of the planning or housing Acts or have served in a senior administrative or managerial post requiring knowledge of judicial or quasi-judicial procedures.
Candidates for appointment as senior inspector must have had direct experience at a responsible level of the preparation and implementation of development plans and of development control.
§ Mr. Proctorasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out in the Official Report the 288W number of planning inspectors in his Department and the number of planning appeals dealt with in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneDuring the past five years the number of full-time Inspectors on 1 July was as follows:
Year Number 1979 203 1980 193 1981 190 1982 184 1983 174 1984 176 The number of section 36 appeals dealt with are as follows:
Year Received Decided 1979 12,990 8,933 1980 16,208 13,130 1981 16,637 14,451 1982 13,900 12,915 1983 13,699 11,221 At the moment there are 173 Inspectors and during the first three quarters of this year 11,453 appeals have been received and 8,743 decided.
A recruitment competition to replace expected retirements and to increase the complement of inspectors by seven is currently under way.
A panel of part-time fee-paid inspectors, at present numbering 81, assists the inspectorate with its section 36 casework. The number of Inspectors on the panel varies considerably and details of the numbers in former years is not readily available.