§ Mr. Patrick ThompsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what performance targets he has set for the Planning Inspectorate agency for the financial year 1995–96. [36397]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe key objectives for the agency in 1995–96 continue to be to preserve the impartiality and quality of the inspectorate's work while seeking further to improve efficiency. I have set the following key targets for the agency's work in England:
- Timeliness
- (a) 80 per cent of planning appeals by written representations to be decided within 18 weeks;
- (b) to provide an Inspector for local plan inquiries on request within 26 weeks of the end of the objection period;
- Financial:
- (a) unit costs of planning appeals decided by written representations not to exceed £690;
- (b) recover 90 per cent. of receipts due within 8 weeks of invoice date;
1429 - Efficiency
- (a) generate a 3 per cent. efficiency improvement in the use of running costs compared with 1994–95;
- Quality:
- (a) the number of justified complaints about the way inspectors have carried out their duties, and the number of High Court challenges, should be less than one in every one hundred decisions issued;
- (b) the number of justified complaints about the way the Inspectorate have handled the procedural aspects of casework should be less than one every hundred new cases received;
- Volume:
- to determine 14,900 appeals, subject to intake not declining.